Halo: Of a Different Sort
by CII
Summary: The first in the Different Trilogy. Captain Telek 'Herosee hitches a ride on the Pillar of Autumn after the Fall of Reach. Now, he must decide whether or not to reveal the secret of Halo to the Master Chief or watch him make a big mistake. Complete.
1. Fall of Reach

**Fall of Reach**

"What the hell are you doing here, Telek?" Captain Jacob Keyes asked. He glanced up, feeling the corridor around him shake. Behind him were other soldiers. They were evacuating the base. It was here that the SPARTAN II program was initiated. Ships were already beginning their blind jumps. The last was the _Pillar of Autumn._ "You picked a hell of a time to play hero."

"ONI sent me," Telek stated. "To make sure you and your precious cargo gets off Reach."

"They sent you," Keyes sighed. "Meaning there's no stopping the attack now. Reach is lost."

"The grids have already been plotted, they've started with the western hemisphere and are making their way east," said the Sangheili. "You're next on the list."

"I suppose you'd got an idea of their plotting," said Keyes. "Because you've glassed planets before."

Telek sighed as they made their way out into the open: "I've glassed planets before."

"I hate opening up old wounds…"

"What's to open up, Jacob?" Telek asked. "I wounded you, not the other way around."

"Captain!" called a gruff voice from a Marine. "The drop ship is here."

Telek glanced up seeing the Pelican fly down and land.

"There's you ride," said Telek. "Tom, how's my exit."

"Not good, Skipper," Tom called. "I'm being chased by two destroyers. I'm gonna have to jump."

"Tom!" called Telek. "Don't you dare jump without me on board! You're not used to the system yet. You don't know how to jump a Covenant ship!"

"Telek, he doesn't have a choice," said Keyes. "You can hitch a ride on my ship."

"I'm sorry, Skipper," Tom called. "Tekn's putting in random coordinates now."

Suddenly, the coordinates where Tekn was sending the _Shade_ to appeared on Telek's comlink. They seemed familiar to him.

_Where have I seen these before? _He thought. "Jump, Tom. Get out of there. Jacob, I guess I'm your guest."

"It's the best thing to do," said Keyes. "Get in the Pelican, Telek."

"Tom, if no Covenant follow after you jump," began Telek. "You are to contact me. I'll be on the _Autumn._"

"Where are you going?" Tom asked.

"I don't know," he said. "But that's the point, isn't it?"

0

Telek stood on the bridge of the _Pillar of Autumn._ He glanced out the window as he saw the _Shade of Darkness _cloak before a smoldering planet. He had glassed many planets for the Covenant, taken shards in for High Charity, but this was the first time he was on the other end of a glassing. He was running away like many other humans from an imposing Covenant armada. It just seemed ridiculous now. It was the big cat picking on the little mouse. This war was unfair. Telek sighed as he looked away from the window and turned to face Keyes.

"Jacob," he began, walking over to the captain of the _Autumn._ "Might I make a suggestion as to where we can go?"

"You have coordinates in mind?" Jacob asked.

"They won't lead to Earth and they're no where near any human colony," said the Sangheili. Jacob Keyes turned to the captain of the renegade Covenant assault carrier.

"Where?" he asked.

Telek cleared his throat and turned to the AI construct and computer of the _Pillar of Autumn _Cortana. She appeared before them in a blue holographic avatar of a woman with coding running across her body.

"Analyze these coordinates for me, Cortana," he said as he held the comlink up to her.

"They don't look like familiar coordinates to any UNSC known system, Captain 'Herosee," she said.

"Where do they lead to?" Keyes asked.

"Outskirts of the galaxy," said Telek. "Boarder line Covenant territory."

"You want me to jump my ship into Covenant territory?" Keyes asked. "Are you insane, Telek?"

"It's better than finding out you just jumped into a black hole, Jacob," said Telek. "At least the cargo would be safe. Sometimes, it's better to hide under the enemy's nose. Besides, you'd be following protocol. You're still making a blind jump. The only ship not making a blind jump is my ship."

"You're following your ship," Keyes sighed. "My ship can't catch your ship. By the time my ship makes it to where ever the hell this is--your ship could be captured! And the location of Earth in Covenant hands. This is a big risk, Telek."

"Not as big of a risk as you might think Jacob," Telek growled back, clacking his mandibles. "I've got a lot more to loose than Earth on that ship."

"You're hiding something from me," said Keyes. "What?"

"Classified," Telek replied. "Just go to the coordinates. At least, it'll allow me to bring in reinforcements."

"What reinforcements?" Jacob asked. "Two other Capital Ships and a destroyer? Five ships against an armada? What the hell kinda odds are those, Telek?"

"Better than the ones we've got now," Telek said. "Would you just trust me for a moment? I know Covenant strategy than you do. Hell, that battle tactic _Particular Justice _used on Reach is one of my plans. I may have been kicked out of the Covenant, but they're still using a lot of my ideas. Trust me."

"Okay, fine," Keyes sighed. "But if this doesn't work, I'll throw you into the brig."

Telek nodded and turned away, walking off of the bridge. Keyes turned back to Cortana.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" she asked.

"You're not the only one," Keyes said. "Though, he's pulled through before…"

0

Not many liked the idea of having an Elite on board. Telek sighed as he walked through the ship's galley. He could feel the eyes upon him as he got his drink and sat down. He thought it would have been better he had taken this to his quarters instead. One particular Marine was eyeing him. His name was Sergeant Avery Johnson. Telek looked up at Johnson, and then cleared his throat. He took out a tin of Vodka and took a sip of it. He needed the drink right now. Johnson lit a cigar in his mouth and smoke it, still staring at Telek.

"Bastard split-lip…" he sighed. "What's up, calamari? I thought you guys came with a side dish of salmon."

"Is that any way to talk to a high ranking officer, Marine?" Telek retorted back.

"Who said you're high ranking officer?" Johnson asked. "Squiddy."

Telek grunted and pulled off his gold chest armor and unzipped the dark green body suit he wore underneath. Under the body suit was in fact a UNSC naval officer's uniform. The Sangheili proceeded to take the rest of the body suit and armor off, except for his gold and black, tri-pointed helmet. Telek had two shoulder boards with four ½ inch, gold stripes and an eagle on his collar. On his left breast were insignias of ribbons and medals he had earned as well as his name 'Herosee' written in block letters with the UNSC insignia underneath it.

"How's this for high ranking?" Telek asked, crossing his arm.

"Holy shit, the squid's a Captain," whispered one of the Marines.

"I bet it's hot in that suit with the uniform on," whispered another.

"What the fuck are you, some sort of alien Benedict Arnold?" Johnson asked. "I thought we're fightin' you squids."

"Good point," Telek said. "I guess that makes you Captain Nemo."

Johnson glanced back when he heard a few of his Marines chuckling at the joke.

"I'm surprise you leather necks know who Captain Nemo is!" he snapped at them. "Especially you, squid."

"I do read up," he said.

"How the hell did they let somebody like you into the UNSC?" Johnson asked.

"I asked nicely," Telek smiled back.

"Bullshit," the Sarge barked. "I'm keepin' my eye on you, squid-lip. Captain or not, you better not be actin' up on my watch. Or else I'll be roastin' your ass up with shrimp sauce."

"Try not to choke," Telek chuckled as he walked out of the galley, carrying his armor and his body suit with him. Perhaps walking around with just the uniform on would garner him some sort of respect from the crew here. Telek decided to walk back into the bridge once more to check if they had arrived at the destination. He leaned down to look at his comlink. He knew that he would not be able to get in contact with his ship until the _Autumn _dropped out of slip-space. The ship began to tremble a bit and Telek was forced to catch his footing, leaning up against the wall. He swiftly made it back to the bridge where Keyes stood.

"Jacob, what the hell was that?" he asked. "I just felt the ship shake."

"It's okay, Telek," said Keyes. "Human ships aren't as smooth a ride in slip-space compared to yours."

"You mean, this shaking is normal?" Telek asked.

"It takes a little getting used to," Jacob smiled. "You're just used to the ride of your ship."

"Feels like this thing might need a tune-up," the Sangheili sighed, glancing over at a steal garter on the side. The garter itself looked a little scraped up. "Maybe an overhaul as well."

"Hey, do I make cracks about your ship, Telek?" Jacob asked, chuckling. "You're a guest, you know. Don't go insulting the host."

"Yes, sir," Telek saluted. He turned away for a moment and brought out the tin of Vodka again, taking another swig. There was one thing that could relax him on a ship that felt like it was coming apart--and that was alcohol. Ever since he found out about the truth behind the Covenant, he had taken up quite a habit of drinking. And alcohol was not a stranger to Sangheili tongues. But serving in the human army meant he could only get human alcohol. It still had the same effect as Sangheili brewed alcohol--it still made him drunk. Telek could feel the toxins already taking affect in his head and he let loose a slight hiccup. He put the tin away just as soon as Keyes turned around to him.

"I see that you've changed into your UNSC uniform," Keyes said. "Decided to follow the dress code?"

"I got tired of a bunch of people staring at me with my armor on," Telek said. "They seem to relax a bit now with me walking around with silver birds on my collar. But I wear the uniform under the Covenant bodysuit and armor."

"Must be hot under there with all those clothes, Telek," said Keyes.

"The bodysuit has a built in temperature regulator," Telek replied. "Covenant technology. Something I've noted you based some of the Mark IVs off of."

"Thanks to your help in the technology," said Keyes.

Telek settled himself down at an empty chair on the bridge and looked out the window again, watching the distortion of slip-space speed by the window. He knew what he was doing, he knew where Tom and Tekn were going. He knew that he was putting Jacob Keyes and his men at risk because of this. But he was doing this for the greater good. He was doing this because he knows that the Covenant was about to make a big mistake. He had a feeling why Tekn chose those coordinates to jump the _Shade _to. And he knew that the Covenant would follow him. He knew that they would follow him, thinking that Telek was on the battle cruiser, and they knew what he was capable of doing. They wanted to prevent him from doing it. He crossed his arms and leaned against the seat's back, glancing up at the sealing.

"They've probably glass the whole of Reach by now," said Keyes.

Telek nodded as he took out a shard of black, slick, shiny rock from his pocket.

"Jacob!" he called as he tossed it at Keyes. "Catch."

"What's this?" Keyes asked.

"It's Harvest," Telek replied. "A shard of glass from the planet. I had my warriors retrieve it, but never turned it into the Covenant. They have a place in the home world where they keep shards of glass from planets that they have destroyed. Trophies. This is one trophy I have denied them. They will not have Harvest--at least through me."

"This is a piece of Harvest," Keyes sighed. "And you've had it all this time."

"It reminds me why I defected from the Covenant, Jacob," said Telek. "Destroying Harvest was never right to begin with."

Keyes tossed the shard back to him.

"You said that this war is some sort of cover up for some sort of inner plot inside the Covenant," said Jacob. "You've written a report about that once."

"The Jiralhanae--er--Brutes to you, coming into the Covenant was no mistake," said Telek. "They came, and all of a sudden we're in a war. Coincidence? I think not."

"And you're just enjoying yourself becoming a thorn in their side," said Keyes.

Telek just chuckled and glanced back at the window again. He glanced down at the pile of clothes and armor before him and reached down to pick up the body suit. He began to slide it on over his UNSC uniform and slid on the green boots under his pant legs. Telek put the gloves back on and zipped up the chest. Telek put on the armored vest after that. Then, he proceeded to clip the upper arm and forearm armor bracers onto his arms and attached the thigh armor onto his thighs. Finally, he applied the armor that slid over his long carpals that supported his hoofed feet. Telek unzipped the body suit for a moment and reached in to take off the Naval Captain's rank insignia from the collar of his UNSC uniform. After that, he zipped up the body suit's collar and pinned the ranks on the collar.

"I've never seen one of you Elites put on the armor before," Keyes chuckled. "I always wondered how you did it."

"Nothing to it," Telek shrugged.

"Telek," said Keyes. "Most of the crew and the Marines are going into cryo-sleep. I want you to do the same. I'll be doing it as well. Cortana will be running things until we get where we're going."

"Sleep?" Telek asked. "I know of how humans love to sleep during long trips. But, I've never slept in slip-space, Jacob."

"I know," said Keyes. "That's because where it takes us a couple of months to travel, it takes you only a few days. Your ship is probably there waiting for us. But still, I think sleeping will ease your mind a bit."

"I suppose you're giving me an order to do so," Telek said.

"I realize that we are basically the same rank," said Keyes. "Technically--but this is my ship. My rules."

"Who am I to argue with your rules?" the Elite shrugged. "Fine. I'll take a nap. I need one anyways. It'll be nice to rest up."

Telek walked down to the cryogenics bay area where a doctor was waiting for him. Telek took off everything, his suit, his armor, the uniform underneath, and got out a gray colored, cotton-like, tunic with matching draw-string paints. The tunic had a V-neck opening for more comfort. These were Sangheili bed clothes. He proceeded to put them on and approached the doctor. He kept his back turned towards the doctor so that the human would not notice his scar.

"This is one of our larger tubes," said the doctor.

"So, let me get this straight," began Telek. "I'm gonna be frozen during the trip?"

"Standard UNSC practice, sir," said the doctor.

"Not on my ship, it isn't," he growled as he stepped into the tube. "The faster I get off of this rust bucket, the better."

The doctor injected him with a sedative to help him relax and fall asleep. Telek relaxed his arms and his legs as best as he could as the glass tube folded over him. He closed his eyes just as he felt himself drift off into slumber. The tube had been activated after that.

0

"Squiddy," began a familiar voice. "Waky-waky."

"Huh?" Telek asked, fluttering his blue eyes open. He was tired, he did not want to wake up. "Just five more--minutes…"

"We ain't got five more minutes, you lazy-assed alien!" called the voice a bit louder. Telek opened his eyes and found Sergeant Johnson leaning over his opened tube.

"I am your official alarm clock, squid-head," the Marine began. "Now get the hell up! The captain's callin' for yah to the bridge."

"Are--we there yet--daddy?" Telek asked, leaning his head up. He was completely out of it. "Why does my tummy hurt?"

"It's the inhalant that's fed through the cryo-tube," said Johnson. "Just spit the shit out on the floor and get ready. And I ain't your daddy!"

Telek swung his legs out and leaned over. He opened his mandibles wide and coughed up the contents that were in his stomach. Johnson flinched when he saw that horrid mouth and those many jagged teeth. As soon as the Elite was done, mandibles closed and he wiped his lips off.

"That's the worst hang-over I've ever had," he groaned. "Where the hell are we?"

"About an hour away from dropping out of slip-space," said Johnson.

"Sir," began the doctor, holding the tin of vodka up. "You're not supposed to drink alcohol prior to cryo-sleep."

"Stay outta that!" Telek called as he wobbled over to the doctor. He snatched the tin out of his hands and took a swig. "I need my medicine."

He proceeded in dressing himself in his uniform, body suit and golden armor all the while he was taking a swig from the tin.

"Sir, please take this protein pill," said the doctor, handing the pill over to him.

"Yeah, take the pill," said Johnson. "And quit drinkin' on the clock. You can get drunk after we blow the Covenant to hell."

"Ah, a celebration party," chuckled the Elite as he swallowed the pill along with the vodka. "What if I had the drink now, and celebrate later? Oh, wait. This is the wrong stuff." Telek got out another tin filled with Jack Daniels and drank it. "That's better."

"All I can say is no wonder you were kicked outta the Covenant," Johnson sighed. "Probably too damned drunk most of the time to lead your own troops. They probably came outta slip-space backwards from all your drunken leadership."

"Nope," said Telek. "But I did get a DSUI."

"What the hell is that?"

"Driving a Scarab under the influence," the Elite chuckled.

"I had to ask," Johns sighed. "Now that you're so richly liquored, get up to the damned bridge."

And the only reply Telek gave was a hiccup.


	2. Pillar of Autumn

**Pillar of Autumn**

The _Pillar of Autumn _had dropped out of slip-space. It had been nearly a month since they left Reach to its fate of the invading Covenant forces. Around her were Longswords and Pelican drop ships. Jacob Keyes stared at a strange gaseous planet and a single moon in front of them. These were the coordinates Telek had given to Cortana the moment they left Reach. But, already, they knew the Covenant had followed them. He stared at a strange object up ahead, an enormous ring.

"It has Earth-like climate on the inner surface of the ring, Captain," informed Cortana.

"Did the Covenant build it?" asked Keyes.

"This may be beyond Covenant technology," said Cortana. "As to who built it, who knows. These were the coordinates Captain 'Herosee gave me. He said his ship was also heading here."

"Where is the _Shade of Darkness?_" asked Keyes.

"She's probably cloaked," said Cortana.

"My only hope that we lost the Covenant during the jump," said Keyes, scratching his head.

"And we both know the answer to that," said Cortana.

"We made a blind jump…" Keyes broke off. "Though they were coordinates that Telek was familiar with—still…how did they? Is this Covenant space?"

"My best guess that it isn't," said Cortana. "But they're ships have always been faster than ours. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at light speed my maneuvering options were limited."

"We were running dark, yes?" he asked.

"Until we decelerated," Cortana replied. "No one could have missed the hole we tore in subspace. They were waiting for us on the far side of the planet."

"Where's Telek?" Keyes asked.

"On his way over," said Cortana.

"So, where do we stand?" he asked, turning around to hear the _clack-clack _sounds of Telek's boots as he walked into the bridge. The Elite paused for a moment, his eyes focusing on the image of the ring on the holographic screen. He just froze.

"Our fighters are mopping up the last of their Recon picket now, nothing serious," the AI replied. "But, I've isolated approach signatures from multiple CCS-class battle-groups. Make it three capital ships per group. And in about ninety seconds they'll be all over us."

Telek snapped back to the present and sighed: "Jacob, I received word from Tom on the _Shade._ So far, she's cloaked. But on my command, she'll de-cloak and engage the Covenant. We're just waiting for you."

"So, your ship made it here safely," said Keyes.

"Two is better than one," said Telek. "Also, I told Tom to call in for the _Devine Journey, _the _Righteous Fury, _and the _Holy Justice _to come here as well. We'll need their help."

"Again, five ships aren't gonna do a thing against that fleet," said Keyes. "No, Telek. Tell Commander Jimenez to stay alert and have reinforcements ready. We'll need his supplies. But I don't want to risk two ships getting captured and the location of Earth known. Remember, you also know where Earth is—so do the other three in your little pirating band."

"I know," Telek rumbled. "I just…"

"I know, you wanna kick some Covenant ass," Keyes smiled. "And you'll get your chance, we all will. Well, that's it then. Bring the ship back up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their station."

"Everyone, sir?" she asked.

"Everyone," nodded Keyes. "And, Cortana…"

"Hmm?"

"Let's give our old friends a warm welcome," said Keyes. Telek chuckled, pulling his old Magnum from its holster. He gave it a good cock and set it back into its case.

"You still use that old fashioned gun I gave you four years ago," said Keyes.

"It's been my good luck charm," Telek chuckled. "I never engage the Covenant without it. Besides, it's a big-ole-pistol and it does a lot more damage. I've figured out how to modify it to where it could knock out the shields in one shot, and take a Sangheili down in another."

"Crazy old pirate," Keyes chuckled. "Never seen a Zealot use so many human weapons."

"Well—when you've got nothing else…" Telek said.

"One other thing," Keyes. "That ring. Did you know it was here?"

"That ring?" Telek asked. "I've never seen it before. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Who built it?"

"Well, at least that answers one question," said Cortana. "The Covenant did not build that ring."

"Don't worry about it then, Telek," said Jacob. He turned back to the screen and then pressed a button on the console. "Bridge to Cryo 2, this is Captain Keyes. Send the Master Chief to the bridge immediately."

"Master Chief?" Telek asked.

"A SPARTAN," said Keyes.

"So, you did manage to save one," said Telek. "Nice. I look forwards in meeting this Master Chief."

"Captain, we'll have to skip the weapons diagnostics and I…" called the technician.

"On the double, crewman," ordered Keyes.

"Aye, aye, sir," the crewman replied.

"He's on his way up," said Keyes. Telek leaned forwards, feeling the ship tremble. It was a different tremble than what he felt when the ship was going through slip-space.

"Okay, that's not good," he gasped. "Jacob…"

"Covenant are starting to board the ship, sir," said Cortana.

"Oh, joy," Telek said. "I feel the more I stay on the ship, the more I'm about to freak out. Creaking, shaking, now this…"

"Hey, if you want me to show you the door…" said Cortana. "It's a long jump to that ring over there. I hope Elites can hold their breaths very long."

Telek let loose a bellowing laugh: "No thank you, Cortana. I'll find my own way off."

His keen ears picked up the sound of boots walking up behind him. Telek turned around to find a fully armored and helmed, tall human walk up behind him. The human wore green armor with various modifications. He knew a Spartan when he saw one. Though, this was the first Spartan he had ever seen. Quite frankly, the Spartan was just as shocked of seeing him here on the bridge. Telek could tell that there was some hesitation in the Spartan. He did not know whether or not to attack or just stand there and stare.

"A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. Given those odds I'm content with three...make that four kills," said Cortana.

"I'll just be happy to get off this rust bucket with my ass intact," Telek mumbled.

"I heard that, Telek," Keyes grunted back.

"Beggin' your pardon, sir," Telek corrected. "Oh, and we've got a guest."

"Sleep well?" asked Cortana to the Master Chief.

"No thanks to your driving, yes," the Chief retorted back.

"So, you did miss me," she grinned.

"Chief, this is Captain Telek 'Herosee of the _Shade of Darkness," _said Keyes. "He couldn't get on his ship, so, he hitched a ride on mine."

"I pretty much just stuck my thumb out," Telek chuckled. "Nice to meet you at last, Master Chief."

"Captain 'Herosee," the Chief nodded, but still looked wary of him.

All of a sudden, an explosion was heard and smoke billowed out from the door to the bridge. Telek felt the ship tremble violently after that.

"Rekcuf rehtom!" Telek roared out in Sangheili. "What in blue blazes was that?"

"Report!" Keyes called.

"It must have been one of their boarding parties!" called Cortana. "I'd guess an anti-matter charge!"

"Ma'am!" called the helmsman. "Fire control for the main cannon is offline!"

"Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option!" called Cortana.

Telek glanced back at the image of the ring.

"Jacob," he said.

"I know," Keyes nodded. "Alright, that's enough. I'm initiating Cole Protocol Article 2. We're abandoning the _Autumn_. That means you too, Cortana."

"Tom," said Telek, holding the comlink up to his ear.

"Yes, Skipper," said Tom.

"Keyes' just initiated Cole Protocol Article 2," said Telek. "We're leaving the ship."

"Want me and Tekn to come and pick you up, sir?" Tom asked.

"You're call, Jacob," said Telek.

"No," said Keyes. "You're going with the party down to the ring."

"While you do what, go down with the ship?" asked Cortana.

"No," said Keyes. "I'm gonna try to land on that ring over there."

"I'd do the same," said Telek with a shrug. "I'll help with the evacuation, get everyone on board my ship—and we can split this place afterwards."

"And leave the ship here?" asked Cortana.

"No, blow the ship up," said Telek. "Article 1. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC ships must self-destruct. It'll probably take out that ring along with it—and any and all Covenant that landed there looking for the _Autumn._"

_Oh, yeah, I have such warm-fuzzies about him, _Cortana thought.

"I'm gonna keep that on the backburner for now, Telek," said Keyes. "This is, after all, my ship."

"Who am I to argue with the captain of the _Pillar of Autumn,_" the Sangheili shrugged, crossing his arms. "Tom, I'm going down in one of the life pods towards that ring. Zero in on my com signal and be ready when I need you."

"Aye," said Tom.

"How did she handle?" Telek asked. "Through slip-space."

"She's in one piece," said Tom. "Though, she did get nicked a little on the flank. I'm still trying to get used to how fast and—accurate she is when she jumps."

"Yeah—she's a little gettin' used to," Telek grinned, giving off his usual 'my ship is better than yours', high and mighty air.

"Don't rub it in…" Keyes sighed.

"What?"

Cortana spoke up to bring everyone back on the objective: "With all due respect, sir. This war has had enough dead heroes."

"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me," said Keyes. "The Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, and that's means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer."

"Aye, aye, sir," she sighed.

"Which is where you come in, Chief," began Keyes, turning to the Spartan. "Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her away from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything: force deployment, weapons research…Earth."

"Understood," the Chief nodded.

"The _Autumn_ will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence," said Cortana. "Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach."

"Excellent work, Cortana," said Keyes. "Thank you. Are you ready?"

The hologram glanced around the bridge for a moment. This ship was her body, her home, she did not want to leave it to the Covenant. Finally, reluctantly, she agreed.

"Yank me," she said. Keyes pulled the cartridge out and the hologram disappeared. He handed the AI over to the Chief, who then inserted it into the back of his helmet.

"Good luck, Master Chief," said Keyes. "Telek, I want you off this ship as well."

"No arguments here," Telek said.

"Your architecture isn't much different from the _Autumn_'s…" began Cortana's voice emanating from the Chief's helmet.

"Don't get any funny ideas," warned the Chief.

"Go find you a life pod and get on it as quick as possible, Captain 'Herosee," Keyes said. "Then, link up with your ship. We'll be needing it to get off if we can't use the _Autumn._"

"Once your ship lands, I don't think it'll ever fly again," said Telek. "But my ship can anchor itself using its gravity lift above the ground. She'll be our only way off that ring. I'm sure Ship Masters Cujo, Mitsu, and Tulsa are heading over here as well. Again, we do need the help."

"Just don't have them engaging anything," said Keyes.

"Aye, aye," Telek said, saluting. "Still, again I do want to express destroying the _Autumn._ Especially once she lands."

"Why are you so adamant about it?" asked Keyes.

"I don't like that ring," Telek replied.

_He's obviously hiding something, _Jacob Keyes thought. _I think he knows more about that ring than he's letting on._ "We'll discuss it later when we come to that bridge, Captain."

"Right," said Telek.

Keyes brought out a pistol and handed it to the Chief: "I don't keep it loaded, so you'll have to find ammo as you go."

"Here, Chief," said Telek. "A few rounds ought to do it."

The Sangheili handed the Spartan some clips from his own utility belt. The gesture itself eased the Chief's emotions about the alien captain. Giving the cyborg some ammunition was a gesture of trust. It seems this particular Elite really was on their side. He heard of Telek and his rogue band, but never really met the Elite in person. He did not know what to expect when he finally got a chance to.

"Let's get moving," Telek said. "I guess you're my escort off this ship."

"It seems so, sir," the Chief said.

They ran out of the bridge, heading down the hall way where they found where the explosion came from. Telek saw there was a mess in the galley. Covenant were crawling all over it and the Marines were having a time defending it. Telek found two assault rifles lying on the floor next to two dead Marines and picked them up.

"Chief!" he called, throwing one over to him. "Catch!"

"Thanks," said the Chief.

"Those Marines could use some help," said Cortana.

"We've got the shields, Cortana," said Telek as he activated his body shields. The familiar rings of blue began to fluctuate up and down his golden-armored body, signaling his shields were on. He grabbed a plasma grenade and activated it.

"Srevol-Tehporp, yeh!" The Sangheili bellowed in his native tongue. "Olleh syas citereh eht!"

Telek tossed the grenade and stuck it on a blue-armored Elite.

"Get down!" he called to the Marines as he ducked behind the table. The grenade exploded in a nimbus of blue, and bodies of Unggoy and Sangheili splattered onto the walls. But there were still more to handle.

"Citereh eht!" called a red-armored Sangheili. "Telek si ti! Mih l'lik! Won mih l'lik!"

"Yeah, they know I'm here," Telek said as he fired upon them with the assault rifle. The Chief and the other Marines followed.

"Did that Elite just call you a heretic?" Cortana asked.

"It's their word for traitor," said Telek. "Which is why I can never go back. If I do, even if I beg to be brought back, they'll kill me. Eh, screw 'em. I never liked the Covenant anyways."

The Chief was beginning to like this Elite even more. He turned back, seeing his shields fluctuate when he felt something pelt him on the back. His shields were going down. Of course Telek was taking the hits better. He was a Zealot after all and his armor possessed the superior Covenant 'over-shields', which were at least three times stronger than the Chief's. Telek threw the assault rifle on his back and brought out the modified, ancient Magnum. Then, in the other hand, he pulled out his plasma sword.

"Chief!" called Cortana. "Get down! There's two of us in here, remember?"

Telek targeted a firing on his shields: "Better do what she says."

He was not targeting the head, he was targeting the backpack the Unggoy had. As soon as he fired, the bullet impacted the backpack. And the backpack exploded, taking out the Elite and the small platoon of Grunts. The firing stopped. Telek twirled the gun and replaced in back into its holster. The Chief felt his shields recharge and leapt out, following the Marines to where another fight had broken out. And the renegade Zealot followed him, ducking back behind the corner as the Chief tossed a grenade into the hall. Another explosion sounded and the ship shook again.

"Did something just hit us?" one of the Marines asked.

"Move it!" called another Marine as he darted back. "Back to the airlock!"

The Chief and Telek followed as well. Telek paused for a moment, his keen senses picking up movement. He saw a shimmer of an outline of a figure behind the Chief. Telek brought himself into a fighting stance and ignited his sword, startling the Chief even more. Instinct inside the Spartan kicked in and he raised his own weapon, preparing to fire at the big Elite, who he thought was about to betray.

"Chief, duck," Telek ordered as he raised his sword up high.

The Chief's own head buzzed a bit, conflicting thoughts of either killing Telek or doing what he said rolled around in his mind. He decided to duck. Then, just like that, Telek swung his blade in a swift motion and sliced something that was behind him. The Chief stopped and glanced back.

"What was that?" Cortana asked.

Telek watched as the thing he sliced at became visible. It was a Sangheili dressed in silver armor and black body suit. This was not a Spec Ops commander.

"An Ossoona," Telek growled.

"Ossoona?" Cortana asked.

"Eye of the Prophets," Telek replied. "Not many know of their existence. There's probably another one running around here. They want you, Cortana."

"They can't have me!" Cortana called.

"Chief, we need to leave this sinking tugboat now!" Telek called. "Before another one shows up."

"Right," said the Chief. He could not help but to trust the Elite now because Telek just saved his life.

"But these guys are invisible…" Cortana said.

"Take it from an old Spec Ops Commander," Telek said. "It's easier to search for cloaked warriors than you think."

"Combat teams on decks five through nine, fall back to secondary defensive positions," called Keyes over the intercom.

They headed down the corridor to find the first Covenant boarding craft. It was sitting in the slot where one of the life boats had taken off.

"They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft," began Cortana. "We go out and they come in. Clever bastards…"

Telek chuckled.

"Ops personnel on decks nine through twelve, report to evac stations now," called Keyes.

"Captain," began the Chief. "You need to get off the ship. Get to the nearest life pod and jump."

"Chief," said Telek. "I'm not leaving your side until I know that you and Cortana have made it safely."

"We'll make it," said the Chief. "Just do what Captain Keyes says and get to your ship."

"Giving me orders, huh?" Telek chuckled. "I thought it was the other way around."

Telek ducked down as another explosion happened. He glanced back, hearing more Marines calling for help.

"I guess it would be better if we split up," Telek said. "And those Marines need my help. It was nice fightin' with you, Chief. We'll do it again some time. An old Sangheili saying: 'Watch your back.'"

"Same to you," the Chief nodded.

Telek ran for the Marines as the Chief went the opposite direction. Telek found the Marines, backed up against the wall, firing off their round at the attacking Covenant. He growled as he put away his sword and got out his assault rifle. He leapt out over the line of Marines and fired upon the enemy Covenant troops. He put the rifle away as he got out his sword. He cut down one Elite and tossed a grenade, sticking it on a Grunt. It was then when he discovered a familiar Marine firing a shot gun on an Elite, two Jackals, and three Grunts.

"Johnson!" he called.

"If it ain't Squiddy!" called Johnson. "I thought you were hiding your pathetic ass in a men's room with a bottle of Scotch, getting' hammered."

"Nah," said Telek. "And miss all the fun? Why get drunk in a bathroom stall when I can get drunk and kill things out here?"

"Well, I can't argue with that," Johnson said. The ship shook again. "We better get the hell off this thing."

"That's what I've been doing for the last 30 minutes," Telek said.

"Sergeant," called a Marine. "The life pod is this way."

"This way, Telek," said Johnson. They came upon the life pod and the lieutenant already strapped in, ready for take off.

"Get the doors closed!" called Telek.

"Roger that," the lieutenant nodded, closing the doors.

"Take us out," said the Sarge. "Strap yourselves in, Marines."

"Sir!" they replied.

Telek strapped himself in and breathed for a moment, holding on. He was cramped inside this tiny life pod. He pulled his feet close to him as far as they could go. He got out his comlink and held it up.

"Tom," he began. "Lock onto my signal and follow suit."

"Aye, Captain," said Tom.

"You got friends here, squid?" Johnson asked.

"My ship is here," he said.

"Skipper," began Tom. "The _Devine Journey_, the_ Righteous Fury, _and the _Holy Justice_ are making their way here as we speak."

"Tell them to hold their position just outside this system," said Telek. "I don't want to alert the Covenant of their presence yet."

"Aye, Skipper," Tom nodded.

"Let me talk to him, Excellency," began the voice of Tekn to Tom Jimenez. He continued in Sangheili. "Ycnellecxe. Olah rehtona si siht. Od ot l'liw ew tahw wonk uoy. Ti yortsed ot deen ew."

"Sarge, what the hell is he saying?" asked one of the Marines.

"The fuck if I know," Johnson shrugged.

"Sey," Telek nodded. "Wonk-i. Ti si eno hcihw?"

"Wonk ton od-i," replied Tekn. "Tey derehpiced ne'ed ton sah txet eht fo trap taht."

"Tekn, ti no teg," barked Telek. "Ret'teb eht, wonk ew renoos eht."

"Yes, Excellency," Tekn nodded.

"Telek, out," he hung up the comlink back onto his belt.

"What did you say to him?" asked Johnson.

"Nothing important," Telek said, he turned his attention back to the ring artifact. _Halo…_

"Heads-up everyone, this is it," called the pilot. "We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five…"

"Here we go," Telek sighed.


	3. Halo

**Halo**

"Tekn," began Tom Jimenez. "What did you tell Telek?"

"Nothing," said Tekn as he stared at the ring artifact before him. This ring had a name in the Covenant. It was called Halo. Halo was more than some sort of strange artifact, it was a symbol of what the Covenant were trying to achieve. And that thing is what Telek was trying stop. Every renegade Sangheili who followed Telek knew the truth about Halo. Telek told them to keep the location of Halo a secret--at least their Halo. But this Halo was not their Halo. This bothered Tekn. Perhaps it was better that they had jumped to their Halo instead of this one. But then, the Covenant would have followed them--which is what Telek does not want. One less Halo for the Covenant, means one less worry about the universe for Telek. It was because of the truth about the Halos that Telek defected from the Covenant, betrayed his teach and best friend, and was nearly executed. Instead he escaped and came to the UNSC. Tekn was told though that in order for Telek to gain the knowledge of the location of Earth, he had to tell the greatest secret of the Covenant, and pull off a few miracles here and there. It took Telek nearly four years of work to gain the trust of the UNSC and be able to put the coordinates of Earth into his ship's computer.

"Tekn," began Tom. "You're hiding something, and I'd like to know what."

"It's--classified," Tekn replied. "Forgive me, Excellency. Don't throw me out the airlock."

"I'm not gonna throw you out the airlock!" shouted Tom. "Why do you keep saying that? Does Telek throw people out the airlock?"

"When he was Covenant," said Tekn.

"Well, how about this," Tom began. "I will throw you out the airlock if you _don't_ tell me."

"The ring, the one we're about to land on," began Tekn. "It's called Halo."

"So, you know what this ring is," said Tom. "Why would the Covenant come here?"

"Because of misinformation about what it does," Tekn replied. "The Covenant thinks its some sort of gateway to another universe where the builders of the ring went to. And they wish to join them."

"But…"

"But," began the Sangheili. "It isn't a gateway. It's a weapon that can destroy all life in the universe. And the Covenant are trying to activate it."

"We have to warn Captain Keyes!" Tom gasped. "We have to warn…"

"No!" called Tekn. "We can't, Excellency."

"Why?" Tom asked.

"Because--if we do," began Tekn. "Captain Keyes might try to use it against the Covenant. Halo doesn't work like that. Once it's fired, all life, no matter if it is Covenant or not--will die."

"Why would this ancient civilization do that?" Tom asked. "Are they some megalomaniac species that wanted to rule the universe or something?"

"No," Tekn replied. "They weren't. This ring is a containment facility for a--virus that has no cure. This virus feeds off of life and the only way to keep it from spreading is to kill life capable of sustaining it until the virus grows into a dormant stage on the ring itself. Captain Keyes might go looking for this virus--or the Covenant."

"Where is the virus?"

"In some sort of containment facility within the ring itself," replied Tekn.

"My God…" Tom breathed. "If the Covenant doesn't know about this, then how did Telek find out?"

"It was 13 years ago," said Tekn. "Our ship was sent to retrieve ancient texts about the ring's function. Telek found it and deciphered it. He found the truth."

"13 years ago…" Tom breathed. "When he defected from the Covenant and came to us…so--that's why."

"That's why," said Tekn. "That's why every Covenant soldier out there calls him a heretic and wishes to draw his blood. He has a mark on his chest. You've seen it. It's called the Mark of Shame. Any Covenant that bears that mark is considered dead--and is sentenced to death. If someone escapes with that mark, the Covenant must hunt him down until he is killed and his head brought before the Prophets. Telek can never go back to the Covenant. It would be death to him. That's why we're all exiled from them, because of what we know. To know this--is heresy."

"You all risked your lives, your ranks--everything," said Tom. "For this truth. To stop the Covenant from activating this ring. So, you knew this ring was out here when we jumped."

"I knew," said Tekn. "We all did. We've been spying on the Covenant, which was how we found out about the planned attack on Reach. But we also found out about what they were planning on doing with Halo. And Halo was so near Reach. I had to do it. Now, with the _Autumn _down on Halo--to protect Earth's location, Telek will use that excuse to destroy Keyes' ship and in turn destroy Halo."

"He's a manipulative bastard…" Tom sighed.

"He's a Zealot," Tekn replied. "This is how a Zealot thinks. He thinks about the bigger picture. Of course he will try his best to save Keyes and all of the personnel that were on board the _Autumn _before he does. He has to. He made a promise to Keyes' daughter. The love-sick bastard."

"How the hell did an Elite start having a crush on a human?" Tom chuckled, shaking his head.

"Telek is--different," Tekn shrugged. "That's all I can say."

"Why the hell didn't Telek tell me," Tom asked. "I thought the Skipper trusted me enough. He trusted me enough to allow me to call him 'Skipper'."

"He trusts you," said Tekn. "But this is something completely different."

"We still have to warn Keyes," Tom began, reaching for a communication button on the purple, holographic panel before him.

"Telek will," said Tekn, reaching for Tom's hand. He gently brought it away from the holo-panel. "When the time is right. We--will not until Telek does."

Tom lowered his head and stared down at the metallic blue, shiny floor below him. He turned away and sat down on the foldout chair that Telek had given him. Ship Masters of Covenant ships were used to standing on their feet a lot when they were in the ship's control room. Beyond the ship's control room was an office where the ship master often sat in and some quarters beside it. It made it easier for the Ship Master to be at his station. Human ships on the other hand had captain's chairs where the captain of that ship would sit at and direct everything from that seat. So, Tom was not used to standing all the time at the 'Captain's Command Post' on the bridge of an alien ship. So, Telek gave him a chair to sit on. Telek called Tom's foldout chair the 'Commander's Chair'--since Tom was a Commander in the Navy. And sometimes Tom felt ridiculous sitting in that chair while his 'helmsman' stood beside him. Tekn was a navigator on board the _Shade of Darkness _and was considered Telek's second-in-command. This ship was often ran by one main Ship Master, and a substitute--just a rank lower than the Ship Master to take over when the Ship Master was not there. Telek stated that Tekn was an 'Assistant Ship Master', or basically a Commander under the Captain of the ship. Shifts between the two were divided between them. Most of the time the Commander would stand beside the Captain and take over when the Captain took a break or a lunch, or the Commander would guard the door to make sure unauthorized personnel did not enter the bridge of the ship while the Captain was on the bridge. But now because of Commander Tom Jimenez, Tekn had a new job. His job, while Telek was not on the bridge, was to teach Tom how to operate the control holo-screens and panels of the central command station platform of the bridge. Tom started serving on board Telek's ship about a year and a half ago, and still he had yet to learn everything. Telek stated it too him many years of studying on how to properly operate a ship, which was one of the reasons why he did not want Tom to try jumping through slip-space unless he was there to watch. But luckily Tom had Tekn. That at least that eased Telek's mind a bit.

"Comfy?" Tekn asked, seeing Tom lean back in the chair.

"Yeah," Tom sighed. "Where has Captain Keyes landed the ship?"

"One of the desert locations," said Tekn. "Keyes has already evacuated the ship prior to landing."

"And where's Telek?" Tom asked.

"Here," he said. "Near a structure--and surrounded by Covenant."

"Uh-oh," Tom breathed.

"They're gonna kill him if they capture him," Tekn said.

"Looks like it's time to make ourselves known," said Tom as he got back up.

"We're gonna de-cloak?"

"Well, once we anchor ourselves," said Tom. "But we will send out reinforcements. Commander Shri 'Canthonee?"

"Yes, Excellency?" began the voice of the female Spec Ops Commander over the intercom.

"Get your Elites ready," ordered Tom. "Trevor Riker and Tulsa 'Tolumee, get in your Banshees with your squad. Once we anchor, we'll be visible. So, we'll have to drop you off and then weigh anchor again to return to invisibility. You'll be on your own then. Shri, take the Pelicans out so you won't be mistaken for Covenant enemies. Go and gather up any _Autumn _crewmembers and Marines you can find and bring them back here. And I want you to take Doc Erin 'Venamee with you."

"Yes, Excellency," Shri said.

"Doc…you go with her," said Tom. "And set up a camp to bring the wounded in for evac."

"Roger that, Excellency," said the Doc.

"Everyone, to your stations," said Tom. "We're de-cloaking."

0

The Chief ducked behind a rock as two Banshees flew by. Then, something else appeared, sending plasma down upon the Banshees. For a moment, it looked like nothing more than a shimmer of heat. But then, this shimmer became solid, forming into an enormous Covenant battle cruiser. All of a sudden, Pelicans and Banshees shout out from openings on the bottom of the ship just as the ship's gravity lift platform disengaged from its hull. The gravity lift was activated and the platform was the anchor for the ship itself. Chief spied two symbols on the ship. First was the Jolly Roger, and the second was a UNSC serial number. That ship, though Covenant made, was not an enemy ship.

"Chief!" gasped Cortana. "That's Telek's Capital Ship assault carrier. The _Shade of Darkness_. Looks like she's deploying her troops to lend us a hand."

The Chief turned back towards where he was heading to. Over that hill it seemed there were Marines. Cortana was picking up transponder signals from that valley.

"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill," she said. "We should check to see if there are any survivors."

There were Covenant on the way and the Chief had to defend himself as he made his way up the hill. They were mostly blue-armored Elites and grunts, nothing much to worry about--at least not for him. The blue-armored Elites were more or less rookie soldiers in the Covenant army, like that of a private in the UNSC. And they were just as inexperienced as a regular private. As soon as he made his way up the hill, he found the Marines. Not only that, he found a gold Zealot Elite as well with an assault rifle in its hands firing on the attacking Elites and Grunts that were attacking him and the Marines.

"It's Captain 'Herosee, Chief!" called Cortana. "I guess he went down with those Marines over there."

The Chief glanced back again, noticing that the _Shade of Darkness _had disappeared. She had cloaked again.

"His ship isn't over there anymore," said the Master Chief.

"She must have cloaked herself again," said Cortana. "We have to get down there and lend a hand."

0

Telek saw his ship for the moment, sending out Pelicans and Banshees. Then, she disappeared again. He had his comlink up to his ear as he was firing on the attacking Covenant forces.

"Okay," he called. "Just remained cloaked and positioned above the ring until I'm able to get to the camp. You'll be in more danger of enemy boarding the ship if you stay anchored. And the last thing I want is my own ship boarded and I have to have her destroyed. I'll just link up with one of the Pelicans and get back to the ship that way."

"No problem, sir," said Tom.

"Telek, out."

He turned towards Johnson, who smacked a Grunt in the head with the butt of his shotgun.

"That was Tom," he called. "He's sent out Pelicans and medics to help you all."

"That's nice of him," said Johnson. "Tell him to send a Pelican here. And why Pelicans? Ain't you got some Covenant drop ships on that giant barge of yours to help us out?"

"I don't want them to be mistaken for enemy drop ships," said Telek. "Tom made a good call."

Telek rammed the butt of his assault rifle into the head of a blue-armored Sangheili as it was just about to fire on him.

"You mark your drop ships, don't you?" asked Johnson.

"Yeah, with the Jolly Roger," said Telek. "Same as the symbol on my armor. All of my Sangheili warriors have that symbol on their armor. To help you tell the difference between my renegade Elites and the ones still attached to the Covenant."

Then, he glanced over, seeing another Elite fall down dead over in the far end of the structure they had landed near. Telek knew that the Elite was shot, but could not tell who shot him. That was when he saw something green moving down the hill. It was the Master Chief. He saw the Chief sniping at another Elite with his pistol. Telek dropped the empty assault rifle and grabbed two plasma rifles in both hands. He leapt high into the air and fired down upon the two Sangheili warriors shooting at a Marine who was running for cover. And then, he came down upon the Sangheili just as its shields failed and slammed the rifle into its head. Telek watched as the Marine climbed up the structure's ramp and he saw two other Elites following him on the other end.

The Chief made it down the hill and found Johnson trying to handle a small squad of Grunts with one Elite leader and Telek running towards the end of the ramp. Then, he saw a peculiar thing happen. Telek suddenly winked out of sight. His armor had an active camouflage mechanism. He never heard of any Zealot having a cloaking device built in to its armor before. The Chief thought he could see a shimmer for a moment and then he saw the two blue Elites making their way towards that Marine on the upper level of the structure. The Chief ran for the ramp and climbed his way up to save that Marine. As soon as he got to the top he saw a blue flash and the two Elites fell, their bodies cut completely in half. It was not an explosion from a plasma grenade that made the flash, it was the glow of a plasma sword. He could tell that only one slice was made, though it was the swiftest slice he had ever seen a sword-carrying Elite make. Then, he saw Telek's form fade back from invisibility. In his right gloved hand was the hilt of the sword emitter, but it was turned off. He only activated his sword when he sliced the two Elites, and then swiftly turned it off. Again, the Chief had never seen a move like that. The Marine--a private--was startled out of his wits. Telek walked over to him, kneeling down to him.

"Are you okay, Marine?" the big alien asked.

"Y--yes, s--sir," the Marine stammered. He took note of the rank insignia on Telek's collar. "C--Captain."

"Don't worry, the Chief's here to save us," Telek smiled and patted the soldier on his shoulder as he got back onto his feet. "So many inexperienced men out here. So scared out of their minds of what they're seeing."

"And since when do Zealots use sneaky tactics when fighting their enemy?" Cortana asked. "According to the reports, Zealots prefer the 'honorable' way of fighting, charging after the opponent. I've never heard of one going invisible before."

"This old Zealot--was a Spec Ops Commander," said Telek. "Before he made Zealot. Still clinging to my old habits, I made sure that the active camouflage was augmented in my new gold armor. I used to wear all white once. One of the reasons why the Covenant thought I would make a good shipmaster for the _Shade_. Love to tell you an old war story, Chief, when we've got more time."

_He used to be Special Operations for the Covenant, _chuckled the Chief to himself. _That explains a lot._

"Hey, what the fuck is goin' on up there?" Johnson asked.

"I'm sunbathing up here, Johnson," Telek called back. "Do you mind?"

"Sunbathing!?" Johnson cried. "You drunken retard! Well, then come down here and help out, you worthless squid. What do I have to do, baby-sit you?"

"Like I need you as a babysitter."

"You need me to shove your ass in an AA meeting," Johnson called. "'Hello, my name is Squiddy, and I'm an alcoholic'."

_Oh, give me a break…_Cortana thought.

Telek jumped down from the top, landing on his feet. That jump was at least 25 feet and some how, Telek was not even phased by it. The Chief knew that he could not even make a landing like that without taking some sort of damage to his cybernetics. Though, he had a feeling that sooner or later he would. There were always upgrades. As soon a the Spartan got down to the ground, he glanced around. So far, the valley was clear, for now.

"We're scattered all over this valley," said Johnson just as the Chief got down to them. "We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked. And the squid hasn't been much help."

"I love you, Johnson," Telek chuckled.

"Don't worry Sergeant," said Cortana through the Chief's helmet. "We'll stay here until evac arrives."

"Heads up!" called a Marine over the radio. "I got a Covenant dropship headin' in, over here!"

Telek glanced up, seeing it head on in. He also saw a Pelican with the _Autumn's _markings on the wings also head on in behind it. He glanced over and saw an abandoned Ghost--a Covenant hover motorcycle on the far side of the structure. He darted for it.

"Squiddy, where the hell are you goin'?" asked Johnson. He glanced back up at the drop ship as it began to fire its purple plasma at the Marine troops.

"We're getting pelted out here, Sarge," called a Marine.

"What the hell is he doing?" Johnson asked as he saw Telek get on the Ghost. Telek road out, heading towards the U-shaped drop ship. It was about to lower down to unload its troops. Telek raced over to the underside of the ship just as it began to lower and fired a grappling hook from a gun. The hook attached itself to the bottom of the ship and he reeled himself up to the underside of the hull.

"What the hell?" Johnson asked.

Telek smacked the back end of the drop ship, opening the pod hatch up to the pilot seat. The Elite inside was a red-armored Elite. He glanced back with wide eyes as he saw Telek reach in and grab him by the collar of his armor and threw him out. Telek then jumped into the pilot seat and gained control of the drop ship, flying high into the air. He opened up the U-shaped barrels where the enemy troops sat and tilted the drop ship, causing them to fall out to their deaths.

"The crazy mother-fucker…" Johnson breathed.

"Hey, Johnson, how's this for help?" Telek called over the radio just as he saw another squad of Covenant forces make their way over the hill. He began to fire upon the Covenant from the drop ship. The Marines and the Chief then followed suit, mopping up the last of the Covenant in their area.

"This is Pelican Echo 419," called a voice on the radio. "Anybody readin' me? Repeat. Any UNSC personnel respond."

"Roger, Echo 419," said Cortana. "This is Fire Team Charlie. We read you 5-by-5. That you, Foe Hammer?"

"Roger, Fire Team Charlie," she said. "Good to hear from ya."

"If you're not too busy, Foe Hammer, we could use a lift," said Johnson. "We have survivors to transport to the command shuttle."

"Chief," began Telek. "We've got more life boats coming. Foe Hammer, this is Captain Telek, I've got a small base over that hill where we can evac the wounded to. I've got more room in the Spirit for the wounded and it can fly faster. Johnson, get the wounded on board my ship and the rest get with Foe Hammer."

"Aye, aye," Johnson said as the Covenant drop ship lowered itself down, opening up both barrels. Johnson helped the wounded on board and hopped on himself, strapping his wounded men in and himself to the seats inside. It was strange inside, the glow of the purple and blue lights made the inside of the drop ship a little bit spooky.

"Roger that," said Foe Hammer.

"If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant are going to be right on top of them," began Cortana. She spoke over the radio to Foe Hammer. "Foe Hammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. The Master Chief and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers."

"Roger, Cortana," said Foe Hammer. "Okay, Charlie Team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give 'em hell."

Telek waited, still hovering just above the ground as he watched the Pelican lower the Warthog down to the Chief.

"The Master Chief and I need some back-up, can you spare a few men, Sergeant?" Cortana asked.

Johnson poked out of the barrel of the drop ship.

"All right, volunteers step up!" Johnson called. Those still on the ground raised their hand. "Okay, you, and you go with the Chief. The rest, get on that Pelican."

"Sir!" they saluted. Two of the men climbed into the Warthog while the others got onto the Pelican.

"Okay, Telek, get us outta here," Johnson said as he banged the glass to the pilot's seat in the Covenant drop ship.

"Okay," Telek nodded. "Foe Hammer, follow my lead. Unload the soldiers at the camp, and then head on out to pick up more."

"Roger, Captain," she said.

"Give 'em hell, Chief," Telek said. "Watch your back."

"Aye, sir," the heard the Chief's voice on his radio. Telek commanded the drop ship to lift off. The two ships flew over the canyon just as the Warthog disappeared into a rather unusual looking cave. Telek sighed and turned the ship. They soon came upon the camp where the medical teams were busy doing their best to patch the wounded up for evacuation to the command ship. He was not so sure that it would be best for them to evacuate like this unless there was a ship to go to.

"Here's the camp, Foe Hammer," he said. "Okay, Johnson, prep these men."

"Aye, aye," the Sarge replied. The barrels opened up just as Telek landed the drop ship. Johnson jumped out of the drop ship and he saw black-armored Elites as well as purple-armored Elites run up to him to help him with the wounded. These Elites all had the Jolly Roger. He turned around for a moment, about to enter the camp when he nearly ran into a white-armored Elite with black accents and a white body suit.

"Oh!" the Elite called, its voice sounded very feminine. "Sorry about that."

"It's--okay," he said. "Uh…ma'am?"

"Ma'am?" the Elite asked. "Yes, I'm female. Spec Ops Commander Shri 'Canthonee. Sorry, I just need to talk to the Captain for a moment."

Telek got out of the drop ship, turning towards some blue-armored Elites: "Hey, you guys. Get out the paint and start putting my marker on this thing."

"Yes, Excellency," they nodded.

"Excellency," Shri began.

"Commander 'Canthonee," Telek said. "I see Tom's making good use of your fine skills."

"That he is, Excellency," she said. "But there is something I need to tell you. We've just received word that Captain Keyes has been taken captive. They haven't left yet, but on my way over, I saw him with a few Elites surrounding him--and a traitor."

"Traitor?" asked Telek. "One of our UNSC betrayed the Captain? Shameful. We do have to go and help them."

Johnson stood there, listening in on their conversation. They were of course speaking in English. Telek turned to Johnson.

"Johnson, how would you like to come with me to rescue Jacob Keyes?" Telek asked.

"I'd be more than happy to do that," Johnson said. "Especially to make sure you don't fuck the rescue operation up, squid."

"You mean to tell me you still don't trust me after I helped defend your squad, captured a drop ship for you, and brought your men here safely?" Telek asked. "I feel--hurt, Johnson."

"I don't trust no squid," Johnson snorted. "Even ones who _say _they are on our side."

Telek sighed: "Well, at least come with me anyways."

"I said I would," he said. "And just you, Telek. And my men. None of your squid-heads are to come along. I don't want them turnin' coat on us and be pointin' their weapons at us instead of the enemy."

Telek and Shri looked at each other, exchanging concerned expressions. Even Shri felt hurt by the comment that Johnson had made. But she knew that Johnson had good reason to make a comment like that. The Sangheili race has done nothing to deserve otherwise. All Telek and his band were trying to do was to get the humans to see that there were a few good souls in their species that sees the obvious sin their species was causing. But right now, even that was not enough.

"Alright, Johnson," Telek sighed. "Just you, me and your men. We'll go find Captain Keyes. Shri, you and your Spec Ops warriors do all that you can to help find more soldiers stranded and lead them back here. I want them on board my ship after that."

"Yes, Excellency," Shri nodded.

"And Shri," began Telek. "Enough with the 'Excellency'--thing. We're UNSC."

"Force of habit, Excellency," she smiled as she ran towards her Spec Ops Elites.

"Okay," said Telek. "Let's go, Johnson."

"Marines," called Johnson. "Front and center!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" called five able-bodied Marines, saluting.

"You boys, and I, and the squid here are gonna go look for Captain Keyes," he said, pacing up and down their line. "And we're gonna make any ugly-assed alien bastard sorry that they decided to capture our leader. They shall regret the day they messed with the Corp."

"Sir!" they nodded.

Telek reloaded his pistol and checked the battery on his sword. So far, everything looked like it was in place. He checked the battery on his plasma rifle as well.

"Well, are we all set?" Telek asked.

"Ready when you are, Squiddy," Johnson said.

"Let's move out," he said. He glanced back over at the two blue-armored Elites who were painting the Jolly Roger onto the hull of the drop ship. "You two. You can finish that when we return."

"We're done now, Excellency," they said. Telek smiled when he saw the Jolly Roger painted on the underside of the two barrels.

"Well done," he said. "Johnson, let's go."

Telek hopped into the pilot seat of the alien drop ship as Johnson and his men got into the barrels. The barrels closed and the Spirit lifted off, flying over to where the Captain's signal was originating from. It was a short flight by drop ship, and Telek soon found the Captain. He was on his knees with a few other officers standing with him. And he saw the traitor, a ship personnel who was standing among the Sangheili. Telek pulled the ship around and started to fire upon the Elites. They glanced up and fired upon his ship. One pulled out a fuel rod gun and shot a green beam at his ship, taking out his guns.

"Shit," Telek growled. "We're landing, guys. They just took out the Shade Turrets on this thing."

"Lock and load, Marines!" Johnson called as he saw the barrels open up. He and his Marines leapt out of the ship and Telek landed, hopping out himself.

"Telek!" called Keyes.

The black-armored Elite who was in charge, grabbed Keyes and held a plasma pistol up to his head.

"Don't come any closer," he hissed through the translator. Telek growled, igniting his plasma sword. Johnson and his Marines lowered their weapons.

"Roirraw, og mih tel," Telek said, pointing the plasma sword at the Sangheili.

"Telek!" Jacob cried. "What in Sam's Hell are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass, of course," Telek retorted back.

"Telek 'Herosee citereh eht si ton ti fi," the Elite began, pulling the translator away. "Enola ereh emoc dluow uoy taht hsiloof os era ouy.

"I didn't come here alone," Telek began. "I've got friends."

He glanced back at Johnson and the Marines.

"Damn straight he's got friends!" Johnson called. "And we're gonna bust your ass, you ugly squids!"

Telek raised his head at the sound of several clicks around him. Unggoy and Sangheili guards came over the hill, pointing their weapons directly at him and their Human captives.

"Hsiloof oot eb ton od," the Elite growled back.

Telek lowered his sword and tossed it on the ground. He raised his hands into the air and slowly put them behind his head.

"You as well," the Elite growled through the translator to Johnson and his men. Johnson grumbled and threw his weapon down.

"Put 'em down, Marines," he sighed.

They lowered their weapons as well, tossing them to the ground.

"Citereh, ouy ees ot desaelp l'liw Tehporp eht ekil skool," the Elite chuckled. Then he raised the translator up to his mandibles again. "All of you, get moving. Single file."

Jacob got up as they began to march up the hill. Telek saw over the hill a massive Covenant cruiser. He knew that ship to be the _Truth and Reconciliation._ He had captured her sister ship the _Mercy and Reconciliation._

_Perhaps Truth is on that ship so I can kill him at last, _Telek thought. _He must pay for what he has done and what he is about to do._

"Some rescue operation, Telek," Jacob sighed. "Got anymore bright ideas?"

"Well, I'm not done yet," Telek chuckled back. "Trust me. I'm not done yet."

"Why do I have the feeling you've been dabbing in the cactus juice again?" Jacob sighed.

"I know he's been dabbin' in the cactus juice again," Johnson said. "He did it before he even came here."

"You think I'm drunk?" Telek chuckled. "You've haven't seen me drunk. Look, it's all apart of the plan."

"What plan?" Jacob asked. "You getting us both captured? If that's it, it's brilliant."

"Let's just say, a certain somebody with green armor might be coming right behind us," Telek smiled. "And if I know him, he's gonna really cause some chaos for the Covenant on board that ship. Besides, it'll give me a better inside look on what they have planned for this ring."

"Something tells me you know a lot about this ring," Jacob whispered.

"Of course I know a lot about this ring," Telek replied. "I was Covenant. But, I know a lot more about it than they do."

"Okay," Jacob sighed. "Care to let me in on it?"

"Not yet," Telek replied.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"I made a promise to your daughter," Telek replied. "That I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I promised Miranda."

"One thing I want you to admit to me, Captain," Jacob began. "Do you love her?"

"Yes," Telek replied.

"That's all I need to know, then," Jacob said in a stern voice. "Let's just hope that we both will live see the woman we love again."

"We will," Telek said.


	4. Truth and Reconciliation

**Truth and Reconciliation**

They were taken inside the Capital Ship, the _Truth and Reconciliation._ Every crewmember on board stared with wide eyes as they saw Telek 'Herosee walk in, chained with humans behind him. Every mind had one thing to think about: We got him!

Telek heard the cheers to the 'heroic' warriors who caught the heretic. He even heard the sounds of their jeers at him. An Unggoy kicked him in the boot, a Kig-Yar hissed at him. It was humiliating, but he knew that they were the ignorant ones who did not know the real truth. Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson were just as surprised when they heard the crewmembers cackle and laugh at the renegade Zealot in chains. They did not expect this.

"Telek," said Keyes. "What is going on?"

"They're cheering because they've caught me," he said. "They cheer because now the heretic has been found and will be executed."

"What the hell did you do, Squiddy?" Johnson asked.

"I told them that their religion was false," said Telek.

"All this over a dispute on a religion?" Keyes asked. "They want to kill you for that?"

"You don't know the Covenant like I do," Telek replied. "Nor--do you know the reason why I told them the religion was false and why I defected from it."

"If you'd tell me, I would," said Keyes. "Does it have something to do with this ring?"

"Halo," said Telek. "And yes, it has something to do with it."

"So, you do know about it," Keyes said. "Why lie?"

"Because I'm afraid that you'll try to make the same mistake that the Covenant is about to make," he replied.

"And what is that?" Keyes asked.

"Destroy the universe with it."

They brought the captured to the bay where Orna 'Fulsamee, the Ship Master of the _Truth and Reconciliation _waited for them.

"The great Telek 'Herosee," said Orna 'Fulsamee. He decided to speak in English so that his other 'guests'. "At last. I've always wanted to match my blade with yours. They said that you were the greatest swordsman in the Covenant, second only to Otto 'Gamamee. But he was your teacher. No one could match the both of you. Your fighting style was like no other."

Telek growled as he pulled against the restraining guards. Orna chuckled. The Zealot Ship Master glanced back at the two humans he also had under his captive. He turned back to the gold and black armored, ex-Covenant Zealot.

"Fleet Master Telek 'Herosee," began Orna. "I've been ordered to bring you before your old teacher--Supreme Commander 'Gamamee and the Prophet of the _Particular Justice_. How can I disobey their orders when you are here before me--tempting me to see if the rumors are true? I want to see just how strong you really are."

"Great," Telek sighed. "Another challenger."

"Just a small skirmish," Orna chuckled. "You and I. I hope the Prophet won't mind if I bring you back a little roughed up. Let him go."

Telek looked up as the two black-armored Sangheili let go of him. He glanced back over at Jacob Keyes and Avery Johnson. Then, looked back at Orna 'Fulsamee. He saw the gold Ship Master ignite his plasma sword.

"Where's my weapon?" Telek asked.

"If you are as good as I've heard and as good as Otto has often gloated about," began the Ship Master. "I'd be dead in two seconds if you had a sword. No. Call it a handicap."

"That hardly sounds fair," Telek growled. "Or honorable."

"I thought Elites were all about honor," Johnson called. "Why the hell won't you give him a weapon?"

"Not all of us like to play by the rules," Orna said. "You humans should know that. Telek doesn't play by the rules."

"Well, then," said Telek. "If you're into cheating…"

"I will make you beg for the Covenant's forgiveness for heresy!" Orna called as he leapt up high into the air. Telek got into a fighting stance, balling his hands into fists. Just as the Ship Master of the _Truth and Reconciliation _made a downward stroke, Telek took a side step and leapt into the air. He rolled clockwise, making a full flying, roundhouse. The back of Telek's hoof slammed down upon Orna's back. Telek seemed to make a second jump when he kicked Orna down and flipped in mid air. Orna slammed down onto the floor of the launching bay. His sword shattered. He glanced up just as Telek back flipped onto the level above.

"Shit," Johnson breathed. "Squiddy has some moves."

Telek smirked as Orna leapt from pylon to pylon, making his way onto the level where his opponent stood upon. He lunged for the taller Sangheili, but Telek leapt up again, first slamming his foot down upon Orna's neck, then spinning backwards, double kicking with both feet in a cartwheel motion, once more sending Orna flying.

"Now, we're playing fair," Telek said as he swiftly landed back on his feet.

"I've never seen two Zealots fight," said Keyes.

Orna flew backwards, making a flip himself. He righted himself just as his hooves made contact with the wall. He kicked off of the wall, shooting his body back towards Telek. Telek leapt off the level, catching himself on the edge. He swung himself up onto the other side just as Orna shot passed him. Orna turned his body, righting it, landing on his feet and sliding backwards.

"Man, this looks like a Kung Fu movie," snorted Johnson. "Except its squid-heads instead of young Asian guys fightin' each other."

Keyes just looked at him, his gray eyebrow shot up. Telek shot up and landed again, making a lower roundhouse sweep across Orna's feet. But this time it was Orna's turn to dodge as he leapt up, somersaulting backwards away from Telek's attack. Telek then lunged forward and slammed his fist into the Sangheili's stomach. Just as Orna flew back, Telek grabbed one of Orna's ankles and slammed him against the wall with a powerful swing. Then, he leapt back down to the lower level, barring his fangs and tossed Orna back up into the air. Telek launched himself into the air, ready to take hold of his enemy again. But this time Orna reacted and grabbed Telek by the arm. He righted himself and slammed his foot onto Telek's back, slamming the larger Sangheili into the floor. Orna kicked off of Telek's back when he felt Telek make contact with the metallic floor. But Telek grabbed him by the foot again and threw him up towards the ceiling. Telek leapt up and grabbed the dazed Orna, slinging him over his shoulder. The Ship Master came crashing down.

"Telek!" called a familiar voice. Telek saw a sword emitter flying towards him and he caught it. Just as Orna got painfully up off the floor, a blue flash filled his vision. Orna stared at Telek, noticing that the other Sangheili had an un-ignited sword emitter in his hand. But he knew that Telek had ignited the sword. He felt something wet oozing out of his chest. Then, he felt nothing. Telek stepped back and turned away just as Orna 'Fulsamee's upper torso pealed away from his lower torso. He was sliced in half.

"My God…" Keyes breathed. "I've never seen him do that."

"I've never seen any Gold Elite do that," said Johnson.

"Toss the sword back, Telek," began that familiar voice again. Telek turned back around and found a gold and copper-armored Sangheili walk towards him.

"Otto?" Telek asked as the sword fell from his gloved hands. Suddenly he was once more surrounded by black Spec Ops Sangheili, who restrained him. "Otto!"

Otto 'Gamamee shook his head: "You've done well, as usual. The best fighter in all the Covenant."

Then, Otto backhanded Telek in the jaw. He fell, gasping.

"My greatest student," Otto said with a heavy voice. "And my greatest--disappointment."

"You--know I'm right," Telek said. "You know."

"Take the heretic and his--human pets to their cells," Otto growled, looking away from his ex-second-in-command in shame.

"Pets?!" called Johnson. "We ain't no pets!"

A Sangheili punched the Marine in the stomach.

"Shut up, human," he growled.

Jacob glanced back, seeing that they were dragging Telek along. One of them punched Telek so hard that he heard his own ribs actually crack a bit. Telek felt weakened after that, coughing up a spittle of purple from his mouth.

"This isn't over, Otto!" Telek called back at the Supreme Commander. "Not by a long shot! If you won't see the light, then you'll see the darkness of death!"

"I will deal with you later, Telek," Otto sighed. "And I will end your maddening misery."

They threw the three into the brig where the other Marines were being held. Telek coughed, breathing hard. His old commander, his old friend--and his betrayer was there. His emotions were going berserk inside his head and his heart ached. They were like brothers and Telek looked up to Otto. Otto called him mad for doing what he did those five years ago, and blamed everything that Telek did after that on insanity. Otto believed that Telek was possessed by an evil demon that had taken his friend and turned him into a monster. Of course, no demon had taken Telek. He knew the truth, that was all. Keyes held Telek's head up and braced the 9-foot tall Elite up against his chest. He was trying to keep Telek awake.

"You're bleeding internally," he said.

"That Spec Ops Warrior punched me very hard," Telek coughed. "I'll be fine…"

"That's him," said Keyes. "The one who betrayed you--the one who was your superior officer."

"That's him," Telek replied. "He--he was my superior. He--he is the true commander of the fleet _Particular Justice._ I--I was his second-in-command. Everyone looked up to both of us. We--were the best of the best. We commanded our ships with honor in battle. It--was glorious…"

"I--could tell the way you were looking at him," said Keyes. "At first, you were almost happy to see him. Why did he do that? Why did he throw you that sword?"

"Because--Orna knew better," said Telek. "We--we have rules on dueling combat. Even ones to the death. Both--should be armed."

"Telek--about Halo…" Keyes began.

"Yes, give us one of your longwinded speeches again, old friend," called a voice. "Tell us all once more the true story about Halo."

"Otto!" Telek gasped as he saw a gold-armored Elite walk in. Otto 'Gamamee was dressed similar to Telek, except the trimming and accent colors of his armor were copper colored instead of black. Those were the colors of a Supreme Commander.

"Let us have a speech, Telek," said Otto as he sat down on the floor beside the force field keeping the prisoners in their cage. "I've missed your speeches. That's what he did a lot before he became a drunken reprobate--and a traitor. His speeches would enthrall all. Even the Prophets enjoyed them. Let us have a speech--just like old times."

"S--shut up…" Telek hissed back.

"You didn't tell them, did you?" Otto asked. "You tell us a lie, but you didn't tell them a lie? Did you decide to tell them the truth?"

"I've always told the truth when it pertains to Halo," said Telek. "It is--what you believe in--that's the lie."

"Telek…" Otto sighed. "I pity you. I've missed my old friend. I've missed the glorious battles we've fought together--side by side. But this demon--this whatever it is--has driven you to madness."

"It--it isn't madness…"

"It's possession," said Otto.

"You don't know what it is…" Telek sighed. "It is I who pity you."

"I'm gonna hate to loose you, Telek," Otto sighed. "I really am. But you've given us quite a chase. But, the chase is over…"

Telek did not even reply after that. Otto shook his head and turned around, leaving the brig.

"Okay," Keyes began. "I'm convinced. They don't like you."

"Isn't it--obvious?" Telek asked as he reached up and unzipped the bodysuit. He then unzipped the UNSC uniform until his bare chest was exposed. He pulled the clothes away until they saw a peculiar scare on his chest. The scar was in the shape of a circle with various lines and smaller circles around it. Keyes knew that this was a character in the Covenant language. He was not familiar with it though.

"This is called the Mark of Shame," said Telek. "It is a mark that is burned on a traitor prior to execution. Anyone with this mark is to be killed on site. Though--they are making an exception right now on Otto's behalf, but I will be killed no matter what."

He looked over at Johnson.

"Do you trust me now?" he asked.

"I don't like you," said Johnson. "But--I trust you. Those squid-heads want to kill you as much as they want to kill us. I guess that's enough."

Telek zipped up his suits again and began to breathe heavily. He prayed to whatever god out there that the Chief would come.

"Telek," said Keyes. "Stay awake."

"I'm--so tired," he breathed.

"Well, then, let's talk," said Keyes. "Tell me about Halo."

"Halo?" Telek asked. "Alright. Halo--was created by an ancient race called the Forerunners. This race--built this installation to contain--a horrible thing--I--think it's a virus--or some sort of monster. But--this monster--feeds off of us. So, in order to make is thing dormant, they--installed a weapon on Halo that could destroy all life on a galactic scale."

"It's a weapon?" Keyes asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because--I knew what it was capable of doing," said Telek. "The Covenant think its some sort of gateway to another dimension where they will go and live in peace. I--discovered that it wasn't a gateway--it's a weapon that will wipe out the galaxy. I--was afraid that you would--make a similar mistake and think it could be used--against the Covenant. It can't--be used."

"And what about this--monster--virus?" Keyes asked.

"I--don't know much about it," said Telek. "But--it was the reason why the Forerunner built Halo. It's a containment facility, nothing more."

"Why make this ring habitable?" Keyes asked.

"Make it--look innocent," Telek said. "So that people wouldn't poke around--so they wouldn't go looking for the ring's terrible secrets. Jacob, we have to stop the Covenant from trying to find a way of using Halo. Just stop--them. Don't go poking--around for anything else."

"I'll keep that in mind, Telek," said Keyes.

"We're in a whole hell of trouble if you're right about this ring, Squiddy," said Johnson.

"You--don't know how much--trouble, Johnson," Telek gurgled.

"Stay awake for me," said Keyes.

"Is--that an--order?" he asked.

"Damn straight it is," Keyes smiled.

"Who--am--I to argue--with the Captain of the--_Pillar of Autumn?_" Telek gave off a weak smile back. "Yes--Excellency."

Captain Jacob Keyes could only chuckle.

0

Time had passed. Keyes had done all he can to keep Telek awake. Though, it was getting harder as time passed. Telek kept saying that he was just waiting for either the Chief or Death to come and take him. He said that neither of them will let the Covenant have him.

"If the Chief doesn't--come, death surely will," gasped Telek. It was getting harder and harder for him to talk. His great, deep voice was nothing more than a whisper now. "But--I'll--be damned if I let the Covenant have--me now. I'll die--before they got a chance to--execute me."

"Let's just hope the Chief comes here first," said Keyes. He glanced over at a gold-armored Elite who was guarding the cells. Two grunts sat on their haunches, snoring away as the Zealot paced up and down, his plasma sword ready for anyone unauthorized coming through that door. Then, the door opened. Suddenly the gold-armored Elite's shields fluctuated and disappeared. Then, the Zealot fell down on the floor, its sword shattering. It was dead. Keyes glanced over, seeing two glowing balls of blue fly out and attach themselves onto the two sleeping Grunts. They exploded after that and the Grunts went flying against the wall, their florescent blood splattering all over the floor.

"Hey, it's the Chief!" called a Marine as a green, armored, tall human walked into the brig.

"Good work, Chief," said Keyes.

"That was amazing, sir, you really kicked the shi…" began another Marine.

"Stow it, Corporal!" barked Keyes. "Let's get these cells open, Chief. The power control's along the back wall."

"Right," said the Chief.

The Spartan pressed the button on the holo-panel and the cells opened up.

"Johnson, help me get Telek up," said Keyes.

"Right," Johnson said as he picked one of Telek's arms up and placed it over his shoulder. Keyes did the same thing putting the other arm on his shoulder.

"Damn, Telek!" Johnson called. "You're heavy."

"I'm--also 9-foot 7," Telek gasped. "And I weigh around--400 pounds."

"As soon as this is over, you're on a diet," Johnson said.

"What happened to him?" the Chief asked.

"They beat him up pretty badly," said Keyes. "We need to get off this ship and get him to a doctor."

"Erin 'Venamee has a camp not far from where--we were captured," said Telek. "He'll--be able to patch me up for--transport."

"I want you on your ship, Telek," said Keyes. "And stay there until we need your help."

"Aye--aye…" the Elite nodded. "It's--good to see you--again, Master Chief."

"It's good to see you, Captain 'Herosee," the Chief nodded.

"Coming here was reckless," said Keyes to the Chief. "You two know better than this…thanks." He turned back to the Marines. "Marines! Lock and load your weapons, let's be ready to move."

"Yes, sir," said one of the Marines.

"Okay, sir," the other said.

"I'm right behind you, sir," said Johnson.

"No--arguments--here, Jacob," Telek said. "The--sooner we can--get off--this rust bucket--the better."

Keyes again chucked at the comment Telek had made about the Covenant cruiser. He recalled the Sangheili making a similar comment about his own ship. Now, he began to realize that any ship that was not his own _Shade of Darkness _was a 'rust bucket' to him.

"While the Covenant had us locked up in here," began Keyes. "Telek has been very helpful in telling us what this ring is. It's called Halo."

"One moment, sir," began Cortana. "Accessing Covenant battle-net. According to the data in their networks, the ring has some kind of deep religious significance…"

"Hah!" Telek snorted. "Don't tell them anymore. They--know. This ring--is not any sort of--religious artifact. It's--a weapon."

"He told us that too," said Keyes. "Apparently the Covenant doesn't think so. They believe it's some sort of portal or gateway. They don't know it's a weapon."

"They're--gonna make a big--mistake, Chief, Cortana," Telek began. "That's--why I wanted to--get Keyes to destroy the _Autumn _once she landed. We--have to stop them. 'Who ever controls Halo--controls the fate of the universe…'"

"That's what they kept saying," said Keyes. "From Telek's translations."

"Now I see," said the AI. "I have intercepted a number of messages about a Covenant search team, scouting for a control room. I thought they were looking for the bridge of a cruiser I damaged in the battle above the ring. But they must be looking for Halo's control room."

"That's bad news," said Keyes. "If Halo is a weapon, and the Covenant gain control of it, they'll use it as a weapon and wipe out the entire human race. Chief, Cortana, I have a new mission for you. We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control room. "Marines! Let's move!"

"Sir," they nodded.

Keyes and his men armed themselves with Needlers and plasma rifles. Keyes and Johnson still carried Telek on their shoulders. They made their way out of the brig and back up the hall.

"So, how do we find our way outta here?" Johnson asked.

"Simple," said Cortana. "Just follow the trail of dead bodies."

Telek lifted his weary head up and saw all sorts of blood splattered everywhere and dead Covenant soldiers lying on the floor. It seemed that the Chief had taken out much of the ship's crewmembers.

"Good--work, Chief," he whispered. They made their way down the hall, passed the control room of the ship's bridge. Telek glanced inside, wanting to know if Otto 'Gamamee was in there after he had killed Ship Master Orna 'Fulsamee. Apparently, he was not. He must have gone back to his own ship.

"Cortana to Echo 419," began Cortana. "We have the captain and need extraction on the double."

"Negative Cortana, I've been engaged by Covenant air patrols, and I'm havin' a tough time shakin' 'em," began Foe Hammer. "You'll be better off findin' your own ride. Sorry."

"Acknowledged, Foe Hammer. Cortana out," she said. "Air support is cut off, Captain. We need to hold here until she can move in."

"Aw, man!" called one of the Marines. "We're trapped in here! We're screwed! We're screwed, man!"

"Pipe down, Marine!" ordered Johnson.

"Stow the bellyaching, soldier, remember you're a leatherneck," ordered Keyes.

"Jacob--if there is--an Spirit in the--hangar bay--above us," Telek began, weakly. "I--I can fly--us out of--here."

"Not in your condition, Telek," said Keyes. "Luckily, I know how to operate one as well. We'll use it to get off the ship."

"There's a Covenant drop ship still docked," said Cortana.

They went down the hall up to the docked drop ship. Already, the rest of the crew was alerted to their position and began to close in. The Chief turned around and fired upon them with a plasma rifle. Telek heard one of them cry out in his language.

"Citereh eht tog evah yeht!"

"They--know I'm with you," Telek said.

"We're getting you outta here, Captain," said Keyes. The Chief pressed a few buttons and the drop ship came loose. Behind them, two Hunters came lumbering in, charging up their fuel rod cannons.

"That's it, the drop ship is loose," said Cortana.

"Everybody, mount up, let's get onboard," ordered Keyes as he hopped into the pilot's seat. Johnson and the Chief helped Telek in and strapped him to a chair. The Chief placed a gloved hand on Telek's shoulder.

"You'll be alright, Captain," he said.

"Thanks--to you," Telek smiled back. "I--knew you'd come. They--can never--have me. My--friends won't let them."

"Give me a minute to interface with the ship's controls," began Cortana.

"No, no need. I'll take this bird out myself," said Keyes. He pulled back on the controls and the drop ship came to life. Keyes moved the ship away from the docking arm.

"Captain! Hunters!" called Cortana as the Hunters made their way towards the stolen ship.

"Hang on," said Keyes. He pulled back on the controls again and rammed the two barrels into the Hunters, smearing their orange blood against the wall.

"Nice one, Sir!" called one of the Marines.

"Good--one, Jacob," Telek breathed. "Couldn't--have done--it--better myself."

"Take it easy, Squiddy," said Johnson. "Just don't try to talk right now."

"I'm--surprised that you--care--so much," said Telek.

"I don't," he said. "But you still have some uses. And we need those uses."

"It's--good--to be--needed," Telek sighed, leaning his head back. He reached up and took his helmet off so that he could rest his head against the seat more comfortably.

"Time for a little payback," said Keyes as he pulled the drop ship out of the opened hatches of the cruiser.

Keyes followed Erin in as he and his Sanghieli brought the injured Telek into the medical tent. Keyes noted the color of Erin's armor. It looked gold, like a Zealot's armor, but it was a bit more subtle than the gold armor that Telek wore, it looked more olive than gold. His Elites were dressed in light purple-blue armor--which denoted them to be medical officers. Erin was a Zealot, but his subtle gold color denoted him to be the head of the medical team. Erin's mandible armor was off his face. Telek was dressed in the gray T-shirt and drawstring pants. Erin grabbed Telek's arm and pressed a pressure gun against the bend. Keyes heard something spray out and into Telek's arm.

"It is a healing agent," said Erin. "It helps in the process of mending the bones and any damaged organs. He will be alright within a few hours."

"How bad was it?" Keyes asked.

"Well, if you had not gotten him to me in time, he would have been beyond help," replied Erin.

"Erin…" began Telek. "Leave me--with Jacob for a moment."

"Yes, Excellency," said Erin. "I'll be in the next tent if you need me."

"Jacob…" Telek said as he leaned up. A light shined above his head and his blue eyes squinted against it. "Come here."

Keyes sat down on a chair beside the bed and Telek leaned over to him.

"Tell me," he began. "What do you plan on doing--after you know everything--I told you?"

"I'm sending the Chief to look for the _Silent Cartographer_," said Keyes. "From there, he will be able to locate where the Control Room of Halo is located."

"Jacob, remember--what I told you," said Telek. "Halo--cannot be used--for any--good. Stopping--the Covenant from--activating Halo--is the only option."

"I know," he said.

"What else are you going to do?" the Sangheili asked.

"I am going to search in another spot," said Keyes. "Where the other part of the Covenant have been going to. It looks like some sort of laboratory."

Telek's eyes shot open: "Jacob! Don't be a fool. Don't--go poking--in there."

"Why?" he asked.

"That--the virus…" Telek began. "That's--that could--be where the--virus is."

"Telek, maybe we can use that virus against the Covenant…"

"No!" Telek grunted, breathing heavily again. "Jacob. What you're about to do--is why--I didn't--want to tell you--about this ring. I--had a feeling--you would try--to find--a way to use it. It--it doesn't work like that. Please--Jacob. Don't--go."

"I'm sorry, Telek," said Keyes. "I know you're concerned. But I need to find what this ring is about. There's still things you're not willing to tell me."

"I've told you everything--I've known," said Telek.

"Telek, I know you've made a promise to Miranda," he said. "But you know you can't keep that promise. I've got a job to do."

"Jacob…" Telek painfully began as he sat up. "Please…listen--to me."

"Take care, Telek," Keyes said as he patted the Elite on the shoulder. "Erin's gonna take you back up to your ship so you can get some rest. I'll need your help in getting the wounded off this ring."

Jacob Keyes disappeared out the flap of the tent. Telek leaned back down and placed his hands upon his face, exhausted both emotionally and physically.

"No one ever--listens to me…" he sighed. Then, he slowly drifted off into slumber.


	5. Two Betrayals and Telek

**Two Betrayals and Telek**

Telek stood in a desolate landscape of sand and soot. Everywhere around him was death. He saw a familiar face lying in the sand and he ran towards it. It was Miranda Keyes, Jacob Keyes' daughter. And there was Jacob, standing there. He could barely recognize him. Jacob's body looked like it was rotting away. Tentacles grew out of his body and arms, and his head was pushed over painfully to one side. Little tendrils with feelers grew out from the base of the neck where the head once was. It was grotesque just to even look at him.

"Jacob?" Telek asked. Then, he glanced down and saw Miranda get up. Now, even she was covered in grotesque tendrils and her body looked like it was rotting away. Her head was also pushed over to the side, her face frozen in an expression of fear and horror.

"Miranda!" Telek called just as both Jacob and Miranda move towards him. He glanced around, hearing other moans coming from others that seemed to be affected by this--virus. There they were, his friends, people he had known, even those still belonging to the Covenant, all afflicted with this strange illness--this rotting illness. He spotted Otto 'Gamamee. His head was pushed all the way back against his back and his armor barely even recognizable. Even he was heading towards Telek.

"No," he called. "Stop. Jacob, I warned you! You've--you've released it! No, Otto…Miranda…Tom…Johnson."

They all closed in on him, reaching out for him. He felt them ripping away at him and he screamed.

0

"The Flood is upon us!" Telek cried as he jerked awake from his nightmare. "The Flood…"

"Skipper!" called a voice. "Skipper!"

Telek gasped, and swallowed, looking at Tom Jimenez who sat beside his bed.

"Skipper, you're dreaming," he said.

"Tom?" Telek asked. "You're--you're head isn't--you're not rotting."

"Rotting?" asked Tom. "Telek? What is the Flood?"

"The Flood?" asked Telek. "That's the virus. I--had a really bad nightmare. Jacob--he--was afflicted with it. Everyone was. I--was the last one that wasn't. They were dead--it seemed. The virus, the Flood. What it does, it'll kill you, then reanimate your body. But it feeds off of your body while it uses it for what it needs--to spread the virus. The only way to keep the virus from spreading is to destroy its food. That is what Halo does. There are seven Halos, we are on the fourth one. Even Halos have Flood on them, odd numbered Halos do not. The Halo I discovered was an odd numbered Halo. But it still destroys life."

He sighed as he wiped his eyes.

"Tom?" he asked. "What has happened?"

"A terrible thing," said Tom. "This Flood you speak of. It's been released. It's turned at least half of the Covenant into horrid creatures and even turned our Marines against us as well. And the Covenant are struggling against them."

"Jacob…" Telek sighed. "I warned him."

"I know," said Tom. "But--there's nothing we can do."

"There is still something," said Telek. "The _Autumn._ There are two choices. Activate Halo and kill off the food of the Flood, or destroy the _Autumn, _with it, destroy Halo and all life--even Flood--that's on it. It should have been done the moment we came here. Where's Captain Keyes?"

"We lost contact when he disappeared," said Tom. "He disappeared in that laboratory that he went in search for. He thought it was a weapon's cache…"

"This is getting' worse by the moment," Telek sighed as he got out of the bed. He felt healed, rested and rejuvenated. Sangheili anatomy was capable of superior recuperation than humans were. Even cracked ribs and bleeding internally was nothing to an Elites. Once the correct proper medicine was applied, an Elite could be back on the battlefield the day after. Telek quickly dressed himself back into his armor.

"I'm goin' on the bridge," he said.

"But, sir, you're not well…"

"Actually, I feel much better," Telek glanced back. "We Sangheili are fast healers. Don't worry. Come on, Tom."

When they got to the bridge, Tekn was waiting for them. The black and gold-accented armored Sangheili nodded quickly to them as Telek and Tom got onto the command platform at the center of the enormous room that was the bridge.

"Good to see that you are well, Excellency," said Tekn.

"Give me an update, Tekn," Telek began.

"Yes, Excellency," Tekn nodded as he pressed his fingers against the holo-panel. "The Covenant battle-net is completely going insane. They're focusing their efforts more on the Flood than our UNSC soldiers."

"What of our ships in the area?"

"Still positioned outside of this system," Tekn replied. "Awaiting your orders."

"How--bad is it?" Telek asked.

"The Flood are doing all they can to get off of Halo," said Tekn. "It's--not pretty."

"Where is the Chief?"

"Last time it was reported that the Chief had gone looking for Keyes," said Tekn. "He--did not find him."

Telek shut his eyes tightly when he heard that.

"Did he--not find him?" he asked.

"We think that Captain Keyes has been taken by the Flood," said Tom.

"I knew--I could never--keep that promise to her," he sighed. "I just knew."

"The Chief was heading for Foe Hammer's transport when--suddenly--he disappeared for a moment," said Tekn. "And then, reappeared here."

He pointed at a spot on a holographic projection of a map of Halo.

"Here," Tekn said.

"That's the Library," said Telek. "That's where the Index is!"

"Index?" Tom asked.

"The Control Room of Halo cannot fire its weapon unless it has a key plugged into it," said Telek. "The Index Key. The Index Key is located in the Library. With it, you can activate Halo. Did he retrieve the Index?"

"Not yet," said Tekn. "He's still there."

"Someone must have tipped the Chief off and he's thinking like Keyes," said Telek. "He's gonna try to activate Halo. Tom, you've got the bridge. After the Chief gets the Index, he'll be heading back to the Control Room. I need to be at the Control Room before he does."

"What about the Flood?" Tekn asked.

"Tom, what's been the best weapon against the Flood so far?"

"Well, shields are a good thing," said Tom. "Those who have turned into Flood didn't have shields. It seems that the Flood are like zombies, and according to every movie out there, the best thing against a zombie is a shot gun. I've noticed a few sword-carrying Elites out there have also been making good use of their blades against the Flood as well. Apparently, these seem to be the best combination against them. Though, there's the infection form, which looks like a balloon of yellow with tentacles. Shooting them with an assault rifle works, but not as much on Flood-possessed soldiers. The best option is to kill them."

"It's the only option," said Telek. "If the Forerunner felt it necessary to destroy all life in order to keep this virus from spreading, I don't think anyone can do anything else but to kill any soldier possessed by Flood. Get me my Ghost, a shotgun, a sword, and a rocket launcher."

"Why a rocket launcher?" Tom asked.

"I have to be able to shoot down any Banshee who tries to attack me as well," said Telek. "Shri, get a Pelican ready and put my Ghost on it. I'm going out."

"Yes, Excellency," Shri called over the comlink.

Telek glanced over his shoulder and gave Tom a reassuring grin: "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I know, sir," Tom sighed. "But as your second in command, I do have to strongly object to this."

"I know," the big Elite nodded as he headed down the gravity lift that took him to the launching bay of his assault carrier. Tom glanced down, his shoulders were slumped. He felt himself sink down to the iridescent floor of the corridor and he folded his legs in and his arms over them. He could only hope that Telek would make it back to the ship alive and unaffected by the Flood.

0

The bay doors were opened and the wind rushed up against his face. He saw the Pelican hover a ways from him and he ran towards it. Leaping out, he grabbed hold of the door of the back end of the Pelican and lifted himself up to the gunnery seat. In front were Shri and Ysoa, flying the Pelican. Telek glanced back at them and gave a swift nod to Shri, who pulled back on the controls. Telek felt the Pelican take to the sky, leaving the _Shade of Darkness' _launching bay. Tied down to the back end of the Pelican was Telek's Ghost. Telek tightened his gun belt and threw the shotgun onto his back. He then slung the rocket launcher over his shoulder and mounted up onto his Ghost.

"We're coming in towards the LZ," said Shri. "It's the Control Room of Halo. That's where we got the last bit of the Chief's transponder signal just before he went to try and save Keyes."

"Is he anywhere near where Keyes and his Marines went down?" Telek asked.

"No, Excellency," replied Ysoa. "That's in the swamp area. Then the Chief disappeared and reappeared at the Library."

"He's got the Index," said Telek.

"That's what we think too," said Shri. "No doubt he'll return to the Control Room to insert the Index into the Core's mainframe and activate the ring's defenses."

"We can kiss our asses goodbye if that happens," said Telek. "And the Flood. Tom told me that Keyes released it."

"It's implied, Telek," said Shri. "But the Covenant was there first. It's possible they released it before Keyes made it there. From the reports though, the Flood seems very intelligent. Once the parasite's virus infects the body, they turn them into what is known as Flood combat forms and they can use our weapons."

"Vehicles too?" Telek asked.

"Dunno," said Shri. "Though, with the way they're learning, no doubt they could soon use a starship and try to get off this ring."

"And no doubt spread their virus all over," growled Telek. "That's why the Forerunners built the Halos. It was a sterilization method to try and keep the Flood contained. Without things to infect, the Flood would either die or go into dormancy. Still, we need to figure out a way to prevent another firing and also try to find a way to keep the Flood from getting off Halo and infecting everything."

"Good luck with that," Shri sighed. She leaned back in her chair and stared hopelessly up at the windshield. "This whole ring is infected, Telek."

"The _Autumn,_" Telek said. "We destroy the _Autumn_ and we can destroy Halo. It'll be enough to take Halo out and the Flood and possibly a great deal of those Covenant bastards too. Truth won't have his Halo to start the Great Journey, the Flood will be destroyed, and that'll be that." He stared out the hatch of the Pelican, noticing that the landscape had soon become snow covered. "First thing's first. We have to stop the Chief from making a big mistake."

"I'll tell you one thing, Telek," began Shri. "The Covenant battle net is going bonkers. As soon as the Flood was released, ever head Sangheili Ship Master, Field Master, Commanders, and Sub-Commanders have been screaming bloody-murder. They can't keep it together all because they see one of their fellow warriors struck down by the little buggers--and then they see their warriors mutate and start attacking the rest of their teammates. It's crazy down there."

"Shri," Telek began, glancing back at the white-armored Sangheili. "Have any of your Spec Ops fallen to the Flood?"

"Two of mine," she replied. "Rookies both. They will be missed. I had no choice but to gut them as soon as they started sprouting those sensory feelers and tentacles. They were all ready dead the moment those walking virus sacks attached themselves to their necks."

"I'm so sorry, Commander," Telek sighed. "We'll get the Flood for it too."

"Telek," she began. "I'm a Spec Ops warrior, but right now, I'm scared out of my wits over this."

"Same here," Telek replied. "I'm scared too. These monsters are right out of my nightmares."

He reached into his leather pouch on his belt and took out his tin. It was filled with blackberry brandy. Tilting his head back, Telek took a good gulp and shook his head when he felt the bite of the alcohol make its way down his throat. Then, he closed the flask and placed it back into his belt. He check his modified Magnum, giving it a good cocking. Telek began to load it with the individual bullets that were supplied on the belt for the gun. Unlike most guns that the UNSC used, this particular automatic weapon was not magazine loaded. Jacob could never really tell Telek why the gun was not magazine loaded, only that it could shoot a special type of bullet as well as regular bullets. Telek felt the Pelican shake and sway and glanced back, noticing that Shri and Ysoa were having difficulties trying to keep her steady. He turned forwards only to see a Spirit spraying its purple, fiery light from its Shade turrets towards his Pelican. The fiery pelt nipped at the wings of the VTOL plane and Telek felt the floor under him rock back and forth.

"Excellency!" called Ysoa. "We can't go any further! We'll have to drop you off here."

"Yeah, we need to shake that damned drop ship off our tail!" Shri called. "Sorry, Excellency."

"It's okay," Telek said. He glanced up when he heard the familiar firing sound of a fuel rod cannon and his vision filled with green light. He noticed two Banshees flying right behind the Spirit, spraying their plasma, and shooting off their green, glowing particles of impeding death upon the Pelican. Telek knew the rear mounted gun would not be of much use in fighting Banshees, so he took out his rocket launcher instead. Lifting it up to his shoulders, he tried to get a good aim at one of the Banshees, though that proved difficult because of the shaking of the Pelican. Shri and Ysoa dove the Pelican down closer to the ground as Telek fired his rocket directly at the right Banshee. The shot was true and the Banshee exploded into smoke and blue glowing radiance. He felt the Pelican jerk again and he held onto the front of his Ghost tightly.

"This is it, Telek!" called Shri. "You gotta jump now!"

"Just let me get this last Banshee for you!" called Telek.

"No, just jump, we'll be alright," she called back. "We'll take care of the Spirit."

"Fine," he sighed. "I'll handle the Banshee from the ground."

Telek kicked off, activated the Ghost and shot out from the back of the Pelican. He swung his Ghost around and got out his rocket launcher, aiming for that Banshee again. Once he saw the radical lock onto the Banshee as it and the Spirit continued to pursue the Pelican, Telek fired. The second Banshee exploded.

"Okay, take care of the Spirit," called Telek. "I'm going after the Chief."

"Watch your back!" called Shri.

"Watch yours too," Telek replied as he turned the Ghost around and shot off, hitting the overdrive. He swiftly bounded up over and through the snowy dunes, plunging himself down into steep rocky chasms where the fight was centered. So far though, he had yet to see any Flood forms, but he knew that was going to change soon. Telek glanced back when he saw two Ghosts shot out after him. In front of him was a Warthog filled with Marines, who were shooting directly at him and the two other Ghosts.

"Shit!" Telek bellowed as he felt the bullets from the gun turret at the back of the Warthog shave his shields down. "Stop that! I'm on your side, Marines!"

He growled and swung his Ghost around, the momentum itself was enough to turn the Ghost up on its side as he made his turn. As he turned, he slid across the snow, sending the spray of white up around him. Telek pulled out his pistol and zoomed in. It almost seemed like the scene was reacting in slow motion just as took his shots, aiming true at the enemy, blue-armored Sangheili's head. The Elite was flung backwards and his ghost skidded off, crashing into a rock wall. That was enough to convince the Marines that the gold-armored Elite was not the enemy. The Marine at the back aimed his turret at the other Ghost, who sprayed its plasma fire at the back end of the Warthog. Telek swung around, speeding after the enemy Ghost and its rider as the Warthog sprayed its metal projectiles at it. Telek fired the forward guns on his Ghost as well, firing upon the enemy Ghost. The Ghost finally exploded, its rider flung from his mount and landing in a pool of his own purple blood. Telek sped up and rode along side the Warthog.

"Sorry, Captain 'Herosee!" called the Marine driver. "We didn't know it was you."

"I suppose it's an honest mistake," Telek said, his voice held a bit of a sharp and resentful bite in it. "We 'Squid-heads' all look alike, don't we?"

"We're really sorry, Captain," the Marine at the gun turret said. "Really. We didn't mean it!"

"Rule number one, Marines," Telek began. "Zealots don't normally ride in Ghosts. So, if you see a gold-armored Sangheili riding in a Ghost, or a Banshee, or driving any sort of vehicle, it's probably me."

"Yes, sir!" the Marines nodded.

"Okay, any of you seen the Chief and Cortana?"

"No sir," the driver replied. "We lost contact with him after he tried to save Captain Keyes."

"Who all went with Keyes?"

"Sergeant Johnson," the blonde-haired Marine riding shotgun, and holding a sniper rifle replied.

"What happened to him?" Telek asked.

"Lost contact," she replied.

"Damn," Telek sighed. "I'm gonna miss that old cigar-smoking grease-monkey."

"We don't know if he survived or not," said the Marine in the back turret.

"With all that Flood around, I highly doubt it," Telek said. "I'm heading for the Control Room. You Marines know where that is?"

"Yes, sir!" the driver called. "We'll lead you to it."

"Let's clear a path then," Telek nodded. "And as soon as we get to the Control Room, I'll see if I can get an EVAC over here. You Marines can report to my ship and to Colonel Acanthus Davis. We need to get as many UNSC personnel off this ring ASAP."

"Yes, sir!" they called in unison.

Telek followed them along the path through the snow. As they traveled, the battle became a bit more intense as they drew closer to the Control Room's massive complex. Telek could not help but to notice that the sun was also going down and night fall was setting in. In reality, the sun was going behind the ring as it orbited the planet Threshold. He glanced up; noticing the snow that fell from the sky slowly began to stop. Above him were Banshees, but at the time their attention seemed to be aimed towards something else. That was when he heard a gargling sound, a sound that seemed only to haunt his dreams. Telek growled again when he heard the sounds growing louder.

"What the hell is that?!" called the Marine in the turret.

"Flood," Telek replied. "And they look hungry for Sangheili and Human flesh too."

"I don't wanna be eaten by those things!" the driver called.

"Stow it," said the female Marine. "What do we do, Captain?"

Telek slowed the Ghost up slightly, dropping back behind the Warthog again. Then, he sped up to where he was now riding beside the passenger seat. Glancing over to the female Marine, he leg go of the handle bars of the Ghost, still maintaining his speed through the throttle at his feet. Reaching back, he handed the Marine the rocket launcher.

"Take this," he called. "Give them a few of these if you see them coming."

"Yes, sir," she nodded pointedly as she took the rocket launcher from Telek's hands. Telek took control over the Ghost again and dropped back behind the Warthog again, weaving around as he made his way down the snowy chasm. The glow of Threshold turned part of the chasm a rusty color while the glow of Basis gave the other side a soft, light bluish-white color. Though Telek's suit under his armor was well insolated, the mysterious moaning and gargling that steadily came closer to him sent a chill up his spine. He heard the sounds of Needlers being fired from the other side of the rim of the chasm. Then, he heard the sound of explosions, possibly from other rocket launchers or grenades being thrown. Up in front were various Unggoy and Kig-Yar as well as some few Sangheili still walking around.

"That's it!" called the driver. "That's the Control Room."

"Shri, Ysoa," began Telek over his comlink. "How are you doing?"

"So far, so good, Excellency," Shri replied. Telek could not help but to notice a hint of static in the connection. "We've shaken the Spirit off our tail and have maintained a higher altitude over the chasm."

"I've got three Marines that need EVAC," Telek informed. "Can you pick them up."

"We'll do that," said Ysoa.

"Send them back to my ship and have them report to Davis," Telek ordered.

"Aye, Excellency," Shri replied. "How're things on your end?"

"We're about to see in a moment," Telek replied with a huff. "Telek out." He pushed a little on the throttle and pushed himself up beside the driver of the Warthog. "Okay, you Marines have an EVAC Pelican. We need to clear Commander Shri an LZ. So, let's get to it. The sooner we do this, the sooner we get you out of harms way. I'll not have any Marine as Flood bate on my watch. Is that understood?"

"Aye, sir!" the driver nodded. "Arms up, we've got contacts."

Just as soon as the chasm opened up to where Telek could see the massive temple-like, angular structure that was the Control Room, he also noticed a Zealot standing behind two lances of Sangheili, two Ghosts and one Wraith.

"Son of a bitch," Telek growled. "Hey, you, private with the rocket launcher. Take out that damned Wraith!"

"Yes, sir!" she replied as she raised up the rocket launcher onto her shoulders. Telek ducked back just as soon as she started firing at the Wraith. She managed to make one shot hit, but the Wraith still stood there. Now, it was the Wraith's turn. Telek could have sworn he could hear the sound of the Sangheili who operated the Wraith laugh and mock at the Warthog coming towards it. He definitely heard the sound of the Zealot Field Master barking out his orders to his troops. Telek growled as he pushed his way towards the lance just as the mortar on the Wraith fired. A lob of glowing turquoise fire hurtled towards the Warthog. The driver sped up his speed and the plasma barely nicked the bumper. Though, the explosion was enough to send the jeep flying into a barrel roll. Telek began to spray the lance with the two cannons at the front of his own Ghost, picking off the Unggoy who hobbled as best as they could away from him. Unggoy, or Grunts as they had become known to the humans, were not very fast, or even very good runners. They were also frightened little creatures who had no spines what so ever. Telek slingshot his way over, sliding across the snow in his Ghost as he picked off the Kig-Yar with his pistol.

"Ereh si citereh eht!" he heard the sound of one of the red-armored Sangheili call. "L'lik mih!"

"Sressik-San 'Shyuum, slatineg ym kcus!" Telek roared back.

The Warthog that accompanied him managed to right itself after the blast from the Wraith. The female Marine stood up from her seat and fired again upon the Wraith just as it fired on the Warthog. The rocket was true and the Wraith exploded as the Warthog roared away from the lob of plasma. Telek grinned and laughed as the Marines got out and grouped behind the Warthog, firing on the lance in front. Telek heard the familiar sound of the clash of a sword emitter turning on. His head turned towards the Zealot, who now stood before him with sword in hand.

"Tolaez a fo romra dlog eht raew to tif ton erew uoy taht nwonk syawla evah'i," the Zealot called. "Citereh, em erofeb dnats."

"Frank?" Telek asked, recognizing the sniveling and weak voice coming from the Zealot before him. "Oh, come on, of all Zealots out there…they chose you to guard the Control Room. It seems Otto is setting himself up for failure."

"Otto recognizes my unique skills and superior intelligent in this war," Frank called, straightening his shoulders out. "And he discovered just how useless his faith was in you, Telek. Now, you will pay for your insubordination and heresy to the Covenant!"

"Oh, please," Telek sighed. "I can take you down with one slice and my eyes closed."

"Care to match your skill with those words, Telek?"

"Sure, Ferret Face," Telek replied, igniting his sword. "I'll be happy to."

"Captain!" called one of the Marines behind him.

"Take care of the lance," Telek ordered. "This Zealot is mine."

"Yes, sir," nodded the Marine that was the driver.

"Excellency?" one of the red armored Elites called.

"Go on," Frank called. "Allow me to handle this traitorous Zealot!"

"Have at me, Ferret Face," Telek chuckled, wiggling his fingers in a taunt at Frank.

"Oh, I hate it when you call me that," Frank growled. "You and that blasted chief surgeon of yours Erin. And Cujo too. I hated it when you two got together, talking about me behind your backs, plotting something--sinister."

"Come on, Frank," Telek called. "You know me. I never insult people behind their backs, I much rather insult them to their faces."

Telek lunged for Frank and their swords clashed against each other. Telek pulled away, flinging his foot into a full roundhouse and kicking Frank in the head. The Field Master was flung away, colliding with a dune of snow behind him. Frank lifted his head out of the snow, spitting the white powder out of his mouth. Telek leaped up into the sky and landed directly beside him, slamming his boot onto Frank's chest. He held his sword up to Frank's throat.

"Frank," Telek said. "You're not worth it. You're not worth me killing you."

"You're worth me slaughtering you, Heretic!" Frank growled, freeing his sword hand from the snow and making a slice to Telek's shin. Telek leaped and bounded backwards, flipping in mid air just as Frank made his cut. Telek once more made his speedy spring for Frank, who then blocked his swipe with his own sword. Frank then swung for Telek, who blocked.

"The Prophets will your death, Telek!" Frank growled.

"They will all our deaths, Frank," Telek retorted with a huff, steam escaping from his heated breath. "Or haven't you been listening to my happy little speech?"

"What you've said is nothing more than a lie," Frank growled back. "The Rings will lead us to salvation."

"Only you could be so gullible, Frank," Telek sighed.

Frank slammed his sword against Telek's, flashes igniting between them.

"What part of salvation do these rings hold?" Telek asked. "If you haven't noticed, there's a virus here! And that virus wants to devour us and make us into tentacled, mindless, gargling zombies! How is that sacred? How is that holy? Everything that I've said about these rings are right! Only you're too stupid to listen--along with Otto, along with the rest of the Covenant. I'm trying to help my people, but all they want to do is kill me!"

"No," Frank shook his head. "That can't be true."

"It is true!" Telek cried. "It is true! I wouldn't have done all that I've have done if it wasn't. This ring, the Flood, everything, what the Forerunners created is some sort of sterilization network. Sterilization to kill those who the Flood can infect, as in us! The Great Journey--there is no Great Journey! The 'dimension' they talk about is nothing more than death. I won't go out like that, Frank, I won't! I won't commit suicide. And I won't die for a lie either!"

Telek finally swung around and his sword sliced through Frank's shields. The shields flashed and powered down as Telek's sword came clean through Frank's torso. Telek leaned back just as Frank knelt to the ground, his top pealing off from his bottom. His hands shook as he glanced up to Telek, Frank's blood spilling out onto the snowy ground.

"Telek…" he breathed just as his eyes closed laterally. His arms fell limp to his sides.

"I'm sorry, Frank," Telek sighed. "I really am."

He glanced over and saw that the Marines managed to hold their own against the lance though the Marine that was the one riding in the gun turret at the back of the Warthog was bleeding out of his leg. He was holding it tightly glancing up at Telek. Telek saw the rest of the lance lying on the ground.

"Well done, Marines," Telek smiled.

"Our buddy is hurt," said the female Marine.

"Shri?" Telek asked through the comlink.

"We're here, Telek, how's our LZ?"

"Clear," Telek replied. "We've got one wounded. Get him to Erin immediately."

"Roger that," she replied.

Telek glanced up as the wind picked up and he saw the Pelican land down, opening up the hatch at the back end. Telek helped the Marines on board.

"What about you, sir?" the driver Marine asked.

"The Chief is up there," said Telek. "He's about to make a big mistake. I have to stop him. Shri, take them away."

"Yes, Excellency," Ysoa said.

"Thank you, sir," said the lead private.

"Just doing my job," Telek smiled. "Good luck, Marines."

The three saluted as the Pelican rose up into the air. Telek returned their salute and watched them as they rose higher and higher, flying over the deep, cold, snowy chasm he was in. Now, he was alone. The only thing he could hear was the growing gargling sound that continued to send shivers down his spine. He found no company in the group that made those sounds. He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out his tin, taking another swig to calm his nerves. Then, he glanced back up at the monolithic structure that was built into the side of the chasm. Taking a deep breath, Telek pulled out his shotgun and started up the ramp.

0

"…Which means that any organism of sufficient mass and cognitive ability is a potential vector," 343 Guilty Spark continued as Master Chief John-117 made his way down the darkened corridor that lead him back towards the Control Room's core. He paused for a moment, his motion sensor picking up movement from the back. He thought he saw some sort of shimmer along the wall and the sound of boots clacking against the black, hard floor.

"Is there something wrong?" Spark asked, pausing for a moment, floating directly above him. The AI encased inside the floating ball of metal and light glanced back towards the Spartan and floated softly down to him.

"Nothing," the Chief replied sharply.

"Splendid!" Spark echoed with glee. "Shall we?"

As the Master Chief slowly walked up towards the panel, he heard the Monitor of Halo Installation 04 begin to hum again. One thing he hated about this construct was the insatiable humming. He wanted so much to shoot Spark down just to stop it. Though, he kept his cool and continued to slowly approach the control panel.

"Unfortunately, my usefulness to this particular endeavor has come to an end," Spark informed, maintaining his cheerful tone. "Protocol does not allow units with my classification to…perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core. That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimer."

Just as the Chief rose the Index key up and placed it into the hole at the panel, something clanged against his helmet.

"Oh my!" Spark called. "What was that?"

The Chief heard something metallic clamor onto the floor and he bent over to pick it up. He found in his hands a tin flask. The Chief gave it a shake and heard some sort of liquid splash around in it. Then, he turned around to where the tin had come from, only to be met by something else slamming against his head. The Chief felt his body fling back towards the middle of the corridor and away from the control panel and the Index. He heard the clash of a plasma sword ignite and saw the glow of the sword's blade point directly at him. He tried to get up, only to find a great weight press against his armored chest.

"Don't even think about it, Chief," came a rather familiar voice. The shimmer he saw finally took form and an Elite faded into view. This Elite was wearing gold armor with black trimming and a brown, leather gun belt and pouches. On his back was a shotgun and at his side was a Magnum pistol. The Elite was Captain Telek 'Herosee.

"Captain!" John called. "Let me up, I need to activate Halo."

"Absolutely not," Telek growled. "I won't let you do that, Chief. I won't."

"A meddler?" Spark asked as he floated over to Telek. "Here? I thought I had blocked you and your Swarm outside."

"I'm not with them, Monitor," Telek replied. "Your 'Reclaimer' is my subordinate. He answers to me."

"I answer only to Captain Keyes, sir," the Chief bitterly retorted back.

"Captain Keyes isn't here," Telek said. "Or have you forgotten that? I've got silver birds on my collar, Chief. That means I'm your commanding officer. And aside from being your commanding officer, I'm also more informed than you about what Halo does. You and Jacob didn't listen to me when I said this ring was bad. You didn't listen. I'm trying to stop you from making a big mistake!"

"There is no mistake on what the Reclaimer is doing," Spark protested. "He will activate the defenses and quell this infestation before it becomes too enormous to control, before they leave this installation and spread! Let him up so he may resume his duties."

"He's duties are not with you, Monitor," Telek stated flatly. "His duties are to me."

Spark glanced back as several Sentinels lowered themselves from the wall.

"You will let the Reclaimer go, now, meddler," Spark called.

"Call your drones off," growled Telek. "Call them off, or I'll kill him."

"Sir?" the Chief asked, his eyes widening inside his helmet. He made the attempt to get up, trying to reach for his gun that he had stored in on his back.

"Don't tempt it, Chief," Telek growled. "You've seen what I can do with a sword. Believe me, you don't want to go up against me in a fight. I don't care how cybernetically augmented you are, I can turn you into sliced baloney faster than you can draw your weapon." He glanced back up at Spark. "I said, call off your drones!"

"Let him up."

"You need him to fire the Halo, right?" Telek asked. "Only him? I can't fire the Halos for you?"

"No," replied Spark. "Only the Reclaimers can fire the Halos."

"And I don't count, huh?"

"You are not a Reclaimer."

"Then if I kill him, who's gonna fire your Halo?" Telek asked.

"Very well," Spark replied as the Sentinels backed away.

"Halos?" began a voice from the holographic panel. "You mean there are more than one?"

"Cortana?" the Chief asked.

"Cortana?" Telek asked. "You're in there?"

Cortana's holographic avatar rose up from the control panel: "I've spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching him toady about, helping that _thing_ slit our throats!"

"He's a friend…" Chief grunted, trying to move under Telek's boot.

"Oh?" Cortana asked. "I didn't realize that he's your pal. He's your chum, is he? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?!"

"Exactly what I've been trying to point out!" Telek cried.

"You've known?" Cortana asked the big Elite. "All this time? You've known what this ring does and you never told us?!"

"I tried to!" Telek cried. "Back at the _Truth and Reconciliation._ But did Keyes listen to me? Did you listen to me, Chief? Why? Why didn't any of you listen? Is it because I'm Sangheili? I'm not human, is that it? Somewhere, deep inside all of you is that prejudice against me because I'm of the very species that's trying to kill you. My allegiance isn't enough? I'm going against my own people to prevent the 'Great Journey' from happening."

"The Great Journey?" Cortana asked.

"Yes, the Great Journey," said Telek. "The Covenant believe that if they fire off Halo, it'll make them gods while destroying all who defy their covenant--all the heretics and heathens. About 14 years ago, I discovered a text left by the Forerunner that explains exactly what the Halos do. When I found that out, I've been on a mission to prevent the firing of the Halos. It's not gonna make the Covenant gods. If you fire this ring, it'll kill us! All of us! Even you! That's what happened to the Forerunners 40 thousand years ago. They all perished after setting off the Halos. Why? To prevent the Flood from spreading. It doesn't kill the Flood, it kills us! If you don't believe me, ask him!"

Telek slowly removed his boot from the Chief's chest, but his sword still remained ignited. The Chief glanced back at Telek, then to Cortana, and then to the Monitor.

"Is this true?" John asked.

"More or less…" Spark replied. "Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood." The Monitor paused for a moment and looked down upon the Chief. "But you already knew that, didn't you? I mean, how couldn't you?"

"Knew?" Telek asked. "How could he have known? He's never even heard the word Forerunner until I mentioned it to him. He and his species have never known this ring to be out here until I gave them the coordinates."

"Why did you?" Cortana asked. "Was it because you were following your ship, or was it because of something else?"

"I was following my ship," Telek replied. "Tekn was the one who selected the coordinates. It slipped my mind. I forgot this installation was out here."

"Yeah, right," Cortana scoffed. "And I'm a child's video game."

"It doesn't matter right now," Telek said. "What matters is--is why the hell do you think he would know how this ring worked? He's never even been here."

"He is the Reclaimer," replied Spark.

"Why do you keep calling him that?" Telek asked. "Why does he call you that, Chief?"

"I don't know, sir," replied John.

"We have followed the outbreak containment procedure to the letter," Spark continued. "You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis."

"Chief," began Telek. "The Flood is coming closer. I heard them outside. I've managed to clear a path from Covenant forces, but it's possible the Flood has gotten to the dead bodies. The--last thing I need is Frank rising up as an undead, mindless zombie. Although--that might be an improvement."

"Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?" Spark asked as the Sentinels slowly moved closer to the group.

"Already have done?" Telek asked. "Have you blown a circuit or something?!"

"He won't do anything now," Cortana grinned as she withdrew the Index into her hand. "I have the Index now."

"Chief," began Telek as he moved closer to the control panel where Cortana was. "We have to go. This isn't looking good."

"Last time, you asked me, if it was my choice, would I do it?" Spark asked as the Sentinels drew closer. The Chief backed up towards the control panel next to Telek. "Having considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed."

"This guy sounds loopier than me when I'm completely smashed," Telek sighed.

"There is no choice," Spark continued urgently. "We must activate the ring."

"Hell no!" Telek cried. He watched the Chief as he took Cortana's disk from the control panel.

"Get us out of here!" Cortana cried.

"If you are unwilling to help," Spark continued. "I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take her from you."

"That's not going to happen," the Chief flatly began as he drew his assault rifle from his back.

"So be it," sighed Spark. "Save his head. Dispose of the rest."

Just like that, the Monitor of Halo Installation 04 teleported out of the Control Room just as the Sentinels started for the Chief and Telek.

"Just perfect," Telek sighed, drawing his pistol. As they both bolted for the door, they fired upon the Sentinels who barred their path. Telek felt the rays of the Sentinel's weapons impact on his shields, but so far they were only taking out very little of his shield's power. The Chief's shields, however, were not holding up as well and he saw the shields flash and de-power from the red beams. The Chief dove down into a shadowy place in the corridor just as Telek turned around and fired upon one of the Sentinels, watching it drop as it exploded from his heavily loaded shells. The Chief dove out of the shadows as soon as his shields recharged and sprayed a bout of shells from his assault rifle towards the other Sentinel that followed him.

"We can't let the Monitor activate Halo!" Cortana called. "We have to stop him."

"Now, you're singing my song!" Telek called.

"It still doesn't explain why you lied to Captain Keyes," Cortana protested.

"I did tell him it was classified," Telek said as they made towards the ramp. "Right?"

"Whatever…" Cortana sighed from within the Chief's head. "We have to destroy Halo."

"Again, something I've already mentioned to Keyes," Telek said. "If he would have listened to me the first time, this ring would have been destroyed and we would have been sitting pretty on my assault carrier, returning back to UNSC-controlled space. And I would have been having a good time by the wet bar. But no one wants to listen to me, so--we're on this ring, you almost got tricked into killing us all, Keyes managed to get himself taken by the Flood and I'm here, almost getting my ass fried by Sentinels!"

"Can we just stick to the plan here?" Cortana asked.

"Sure, fine," Telek shrugged as he ducked another Sentinel beam. "And what is the plan, O Sweet Positronic Love of Mine?"

"According to my analysis of the available data, I believe the best course of action is somewhat…risky," Cortana continued. "An explosion of sufficient size will help destabilize the ring, and will cut through a number of primary systems. We need to trigger a detonation on a large scale, however. A starship's fusion reactors going critical…"

"Already ahead of you," Telek replied. "Like several pages back! Didn't I say blow up the _Autumn?_ Didn't I already say that? Blow it up…yeah! Blow it up, I said that. Let's blow up the _Autumn_, that was a swell idea I had. Don't mooch on my idea, iPod."

"Hey, knock it off, you two," the Chief said.

"Tekn, Tom…" began Telek through his comlink. "Where did the _Autumn _set down?"

"A bit of a ways from where you are," began Tom. "She's in a big desert."

"Wonderful," Telek sighed. "Okay. This is the plan, we're gonna blow her up."

"With the _Shade's _planetary siege weapon?" Tekn asked.

"No, internally," replied Telek. "We'll detonate her fusion reactors. It'll be enough to take out Halo, the Flood, and what's left of the Covenant armada that decided to land here."

"The entire fleet of Particular Justice?" Tekn asked.

"Yup," Telek nodded. "I'm just about to put Otto out of a job. He's gonna have to kiss his precious fleet good-bye. It'll teach him not to betray me to that old prune Truth."

"Yes, Excellency," Tekn said.

"Okay, sure, blow up a Halcyon cruiser," Tom began. "How? The problem is Captain Keyes is the only one who can detonate it."

"I believe I was about to get to that," Cortana pertinently said.

"Okay, how do we blow up the ship, Cortana?" Telek asked.

"First," began Cortana. "We need to buy some time, in case the Monitor or his Sentinels find a way to activate Halo's final weapon without the Index."

"Okay…" Telek began. "Next?"

"The machinery in these canyons are Halo's primary firing mechanisms," Cortana said. "They consist of three phase pulse generators that amplify Halo's signal, and allow it to fire deep into space. I can't even begin to calculate the pulse's range. So, if we damage or destroy these generators, the Monitor will need to repair them before Halo can be used. That should buy us some time. I'm marking the location of the nearest pulse generator with a nav point. We need to move in and neutralize the device."

As soon as they hit the bottom, coming down off the ramp from the Control Room, Telek and the Chief began to scan around for any signs of enemies. The Chief spied two Banshees a few feet ahead that were being guarded by two red-armored Elites.

"Wait," began Cortana. "We should commandeer one of those Banshees; we'll need it to reach the pulse generator in time."

"I'm on it," Telek began as his form faded into invisibility. He had activated his personal cloaking device. "Wait here."

The Chief sank back into the shadows and waited for Telek to attack the two Elites guarding the Banshees. Telek snuck right up to the Elites and just as he made his way, he activated his sword, striking both before they could even counter him. The two Banshees were now unguarded.

"Alright," Cortana said. "Lets get moving. The nav point marks our target. I suppose you'll be coming with us, Captain?"

Telek finally reappeared: "You go to destroy this ring. I have to make sure you carry out your mission."

"We could use the help," said John.

"We could do this faster if we split up," said Telek. "You take out one generator and I take out the other. We'll meet at the third one."

"Sounds fine with me," the Chief nodded.

Telek dipped his head and smiled: "Well then, princess, any ideas on how to take down the generators? It's not as easy as pulling a few wires."

Cortana virtually rolled her eyes at him: "The center core is the signal amplifier. That's what we need to shut down. We need to interrupt the pulse generator's energy stream. So, a slight modification to the Chief's shields should be enough to deliver an EMP blast to neutralize the generator. I can do that from here."

"That's fine and dandy, Cortana," Telek said. "But you forget I also possess shields that are at least 3 times stronger than the Chief's. What will happen if I used them?"

"The disruption from your shields will destabilize the generator for good," said Cortana. "Unfortunately, Captain 'Herosee, I can't modify them from here. Can you modify your shields yourself or do you need me to hold your hand?"

Telek let loose a boastful laugh, placing his hands on his hips. His laugh was enough to cause his whole muscular body to jiggle slightly.

"No need, Cortana," he chuckled. "If you haven't heard, I'm a bit of a techno-geek myself. Shield modifications can be a snap for me."

He reached back behind his armored vest and tapped a glowing, blue-green spot near where Cortana suspected his kidneys would be. Telek tapped it slightly and the Master Chief noticed a slight fluctuation of blue-white lights beaming about the Elite's body. His shields were being modified.

"There we go, is this the right frequency?" Telek asked.

"Yes," Cortana replied. "What you will need to do, Captain, is to step directly into the beam. That'll create the EMP blast that will neutralize the generator. Unfortunately, it may drain your shields which will leave you vulnerable to attack."

"I'll manage," Telek said, crossing his arms. His keen ears picked up the sounds of the Flood as they leaped out over the edge of the canyon. "We better git while the gittin's good. Get in one Banshee and I'll take the other, Chief."

"Right," the chief nodded as he turned away.

"And, Chief," Telek began. John turned back, glancing over his shoulder at the big Elite. Telek smiled slightly: "Good luck."

"Thanks, sir," the Chief dipped his helmed head.

Telek turned slightly back towards the growing crowds of misshapen, moaning, gargling creatures that were once Covenant and UNSC soldiers. He felt the sting of their weapons upon his shields and he swiftly ducked down into his Banshee. Both Banshees took off right before a rocket was fired upon their position. Telek's Banshee barrel rolled away as it struck a nearby cliff.

"Captain," began Cortana. "Your nav point shows you where the other generator is."

"I see that, Cortana," Telek began. He glanced back when he heard the sounds of plasma spraying upon the hull of his Banshee. He flipped the Banshee up and saw the spray of azure cross the bottom of his aircraft. The attacking Banshee streaked under and Telek open fired upon it, shooting the emerald green, glowing, crystalline projectiles and watching just as it crashed to the ground. Below was a horrible sight. He saw hoards of Flood combat forms crawling onto the Banshee and pulling the pilot out. Then, he saw the Infectious forms crawling all over the pilot, killing him instantly and then changing him into one of their own Flood combat forms. He winced as he saw the transformation, the grotesque feelers and tentacles sprouting out from the dead body as it rose up, gaining an unholy life. Being infected like that was not any way a warrior should go out--even if it was an enemy. For Telek, it almost seemed like killing the enemy just creates new enemies.

"Tekn, Tom," he called through the comlink.

"Here, Excellency," said Tekn.

"Patch me into the other ships," Telek said. As soon as he heard the channel opened, he switched over to another frequency. "Cujo, Mitsu, Tulsa!"

"Here, Telek," said Cujo.

"Here, Excellency," said Mitsu.

"Also here, Excellency," said Tulsa.

"Good," said Telek. "Listen up. The Chief and I are gonna stall the Monitor by disabling Halo's pulse generators for a moment. While the Monitor tries to repair it, we're gonna get to the _Autumn _and blow her up. But as we do that, we need to find Captain Keyes--or what's left of him. We need his codes to blow the cruiser up. The problem is, we have Flood and the Covenant. But the Flood is the worst of the problem. It seems the Covenant are focusing on the Flood. I need you to do what you can in keeping the Flood on this ring. They can't leave."

"That's something we need to discuss, Telek," said Cujo. "It seems the _Truth and Reconciliation _is being hijacked by some of those Flood bastards. They want to commandeer it and use it to escape."

"Hell no!" Telek cried. "Blow it up, Cujo! Just blow the damned thing up! It'll be one less ship they'll have."

"Uh, Excellency," began Tekn. "You might not want to do that."

"Huh?" Telek asked. "Why?"

"Because, Skipper," began Tom. "Captain Keyes is on that ship."

"Again?!" Telek asked. "Son-of-a-bitch!"

"You need Keyes to blow the _Autumn_," said Tom. "So, you have to get him off the _Truth and Reconciliation _before you can destroy the _Autumn._"

Telek's Banshee finally made its approach to the generator inside the tunnel shaft inside one of the high cliff above the connecting bridge. He entered the softly-lit shaft and descended down the ramp towards a growing humming sound. It was the generator. Telek followed the hum, cocking his shotgun. He paused at every corner, glancing around to make sure he was not followed. He could not let himself fall to the Flood nor be taken by the Covenant. The Sangheili slid on down the beige and blue lit corridor until he came upon an opening where the humming emanated. There he saw a bright blue light fluctuating through a shaft going up through the ceiling and out the side of the mountain itself. This was the pulse generator. Telek took a deep breath and closed his eyes slowly stepping into the blue beam. When his shields made contact with the beam itself, he felt himself thrown back against the wall as sparks flew up around the generator. The hum powered down. Telek's blue-colored shields fluctuated and then shut off. Then, he heard the sounds of gargling and moaning, and shifting crawl up from the other corridor.

"Oh-no…" he breathed. "Not now. Not while my shields are down!"

He saw them crawling on the floor, crawling up the wall and on the ceiling. Thousands of Flood infection forms crowded around him. They began to leap up onto Telek's shoulders and he called out trying to pull them off of his back and neck. He could feel the sensation of needles trying to insert themselves deep into his protective body suit as he tried to bat them away. He would not be affected, he could not be affected.

"Get off of me!" Telek bellowed, pulling his pistol from his belt. He fired upon the crawling, jellyfish-like Flood infectious forms, the bullets bursting their bubbles. He leapt up onto the walls, bounding from one wall to the other as he watched the meter on his shields slowly recharged themselves. Telek stopped in his tracks when he heard the gargling sounds again grow even louder. There, barring his way were the Flood combat and carrier forms. The carrier forms looked like walking, bulbous sacks of flesh on short, stubby legs. Telek put away his pistol and began shooting his shotgun. He felt the tentacles of a human-infected Flood form strike across the back of his shields and he saw the bluish fluctuation. He fired upon it, shooting it down to the ground. The two carrier forms fell upon themselves and their bulbous sacks exploded, slamming Telek into a wall. He fell to the ground as several infection forms leapt out from the exploded sacks and started crawling on him, once more trying to insert their needles into his flesh to infect him. Telek let loose a howling cry and ignited his sword slicing away the creatures from his stomach. His body was shaking as he rose up to face the other combat forms. He was afraid of them, he hated them, and he wanted them dead.

"You will not take me!" he bellowed. "Never! I must continue my quest to destroy you and the Halos."

He heard the sound of a plasma rifle and he looked to see three Sangheili combat Flood forms dashing off towards him. One of them slammed down with its tentacles onto Telek. He ducked and swung out with his sword, slicing the tentacles off. The other Sangheili Flood form leapt up, firing its plasma rifle at Telek, who bolted for the opening. He tossed a chemical explosive grenade behind him as he ran for his Banshee.

"Cortana!" he called. "Cortana, the generator has been disabled!"

"Okay, Captain," said Cortana. "We've disabled ours."

"Cortana," Telek began as he got into the Banshee and flew off. "Jacob's back on the _Truth and Reconciliation._ He's got his neural implant still attached to him."

"Captain Keyes?" Cortana asked. "Chief, did you hear that?"

"What happened to him, Captain 'Herosee?" the Chief asked.

"Cujo has informed me that the Flood are trying to refit the _Truth and Reconciliation _for star travel," Telek said. "They're trying to leave Halo on it. Jacob's with them. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know what they're doing to him. I don't know if he's even alive. But that's where you'll find your codes to blow the _Autumn_ with."

"Understood, sir," John said grimly over the comlink.

"I've marked the last generator with a nav point, Captain," said Cortana. "We'll meet you there. Unfortunately, we've ran into some of the Monitor's Sentinel Drones along the way. Look out for them too."

"I didn't see them, but I did run into Flood forms," said Telek. "Gods--they were crawling all over me! I'm alright though."

"I hope so, sir," said the Chief.

"John," Telek began. "If I become infected with one of those nasty things, you have my permission to shoot me."

"Yes, sir."

"I see the last generator," Telek said. His blue eyes roved over to the other Banshee that headed for it. "And you as well, Chief."

"See you inside," said the Chief.

Telek smiled under his own thoughts as he banked the Banshee towards the nearest opening. He landed the Banshee on the cliff and went inside, descending another ramp again. As soon as he got to the pulse generator, he saw the Chief inter from another corridor.

"Captain!" Cortana called. "Your armor looks a little messed up."

Telek glanced around and noticed his armor's golden sheen was fading away, being covered by the brown ooze and tan film that came off of the Flood forms he had encountered.

"Nothing a little polish couldn't fix," said Telek. "Though--this armor is getting a bit beat up now. Back when I was Covenant, when my armor became too--banged up from battle, I was issued another set. Well--looks like I'll have to live with disappointment. So, who will walk in and take this one out?"

"I will," said the Chief. "We'll need your stronger shields to fight the Sentinels when they come."

"Use me as a Sangheili-shield, eh?" Telek chuckled. "Okay, Chief. I suppose I deserve it after kicking you in the head back there. But I did it with good intentions."

"I know," the Chief rumbled as he stepped into the beam of the generator. Telek covered his eyes as the flash emanated from the beam and the Master Chief stepped back.

"Final target neutralized," said Cortana. "Let's get out of here."

"Let's find a ride and get to the Captain," said the Chief as he glanced over at Telek.

"We can take our Banshees," said Telek.

"No, Captain 'Herosee," said Cortana. "That would take too long."

"You have a better idea, cupcake?" Telek asked.

"I wish you wouldn't call me that, sir," Cortana sighed. "Yes, I do. There's a teleportation grid that runs throughout Halo. That's how the monitor moves about so quickly. I learned how to tap into the grid when I was in the control room. Unfortunately, each jump requires a rather consequential expenditure of energy."

"Something tells me, I'm not gonna like this…" the Chief protested.

"Well, let's get going," said Telek.

"Unfortunately," began Cortana. "I can only use the Chief's suit's power. And it'll only be enough to transport him. Though, needless to say, this should only be attempted once."

"I understand," Telek said. "Then, I shall monitor your progress from my ship. One word though, you get the codes--afterward that--Cujo and I will blast the Covenant cruiser. We can't afford the Flood using it to take off. So, be quick about it, Chief."

"Don't worry, sir," said the Chief. "I will."

Telek's keens ears picked up the sounds of the Flood heading for them.

"Better get going, Chief," said Telek. "The Flood's coming. And watch your back."

"Aye, sir," the Chief nodded just as Cortana teleported the Spartan away. Telek glanced up and growled as he raced back towards the Banshee.

"Tekn!" he called. "I'll be heading for the _Shade of Darkness _in a Banshee. Where's Shri and Ysoa?"

"They've returned to dock, Excellency," said Tekn.

"Good," said Telek as he hopped back into the Banshee. "Cortana has used the ring's teleportation network to get the Chief inside the _Truth and Reconciliation _after that, once he gets the neural implant from Jacob's head and start for the _Autumn_, we'll destroy the Covenant cruiser. Tom, Tekn, prepare to move the ship. Cujo, Mitsu, Tulsa, bring your ships in. It's time we kick some Covenant ass ship to ship."

"Aye, sir," said Tom.

Telek glanced towards the location where the _Truth and Reconciliation _was. He smiled sadly, hoping that perhaps Jacob was alright and that the Chief could get him out of there. But somewhere, inside, he knew that was not true. He banked his Banshee off, heading back for the assault carrier, the _Shade of Darkness._


	6. Keyes to the Long Maw

**Keyes to the Long Maw **

"I find this so very interesting," began Erin 'Venamee as he glanced down at Telek's statistics. Telek laid upon the examining table, dressed in his gray bed clothes again, his red, terry-cloth robe hanging loose around his shoulders. Around him were an assortment of Sangheili and Human medics who assisted Erin at his work. One particular was a budding, young Sangheili medic named Vero 'Linomee, who worked as Erin's assistant. The young medic was dressed in red armor with the medical olive green accents.

"Here is the rest, Excellency," began the soft-spoken Vero as he handed his superior more on Telek's stats.

"What is it that you find so interesting, Erin?" Telek asked.

"I find it so interesting that you could just dive into the insanity and come out in one piece like that," Erin sighed. "But most important--this--these particles in your bloodstream. Were you, bitten--per se--by the Flood?"

"I felt them crawling all over me, and it felt they were piercing me with their tentacles," said Telek. "The infectious forms did that. But--nothing happened?"

"You have Flood DNA inside of you," said Erin. "Flood mutated cells. But they're dead. It seems like they tried to assimilate you, but--they couldn't."

"Sweet!' Telek laughed as he leaned up, placing his helmet back on his head. "I'm immune to the Flood! Er--how did I become immune to the Flood?"

"Well, Flood attacks the nervous system," said Erin. "However, your nervous system is--a bit messed up."

"Messed up, how?" Telek asked.

"You've got a neurological disorder, Telek," Erin sighed. "I've been meaning to tell you about it. It's called Ataxia."

"It's called what?"

"Ataxia," Erin said. "Humans get it too--so do we. It comes from the fact your cerebellum is somewhat damaged, so, this affects neural impulses going to your muscles. It explains why sometimes you look like you're walking while drunk--even when you're not."

"Okay…" Telek began. "How did this happen?"

"Ethanol abuse, Excellency," said Vero. "From your drinking."

"Alcohol?" Telek asked. "Alcohol gave me this disorder and because of it, the Flood don't like me?"

"You can still be killed by them," said Erin. "But they can't assimilate you into their numbers. But, the downside is--without proper treatment, muscle movement will continue to deteriorate to where you'll have no control over it--and you'll have to walk on a cane for the rest of your life. You'll have to be medically discharged."

"Great…" Telek sighed as he laid back down on the table. "What good is having some sort of immunity to that damned virus when I can't even use it to fight them? What's the treatment?"

"Physical therapy," Erin said. "And you'll have to take it easy a bit more. No going off to dive valiantly into battle like you just did. You can still be at the command of the ship, just--ease off with the combat a bit more."

"I get into a frelling desk job for the rest of my career?" Telek asked. " Erin! I'm a warrior, I'm special forces. My job is out there on the battlefield as well as being on this ship."

"You're the commander of this ship," said Erin. "Now, more than ever, your place should be here, not out there. Take it more easy. And with my treatment, we can stave off the damage to your nervous system long enough so you can stay in the game and see it to the end. But you have to do as I say when it comes to your health, Telek. First off, knock off the drinking. The more you drink, the worse the damage will be. Hell, you'll be in a hover chair within 5 years with the rate you're going now. Is that anyway for the great commander Telek 'Herosee to go? The great Fleet Master we all know and look up to?"

Telek looked away from Erin.

"Telek," began Erin. "Knock off the drinking. It isn't doing much for you. Now, because of it, yes--it gave you an edge against the Flood--but it could also be the thing that will take you down."

"I just hope we finish this war out before that happens," Telek sighed. "Don't tell the men I have this disorder." He raised his head up. "You hear me? None of you are to say a word!"

"Yes, Excellency," barked the Sangheili.

"Yes, sir!' called the Humans.

"Of course we won't say anything," said Erin. "I'm bound by the code of privacy with my patients. It is illegal for me to say anything without proper consent from you--or someone who outranks you."

"Nice save," Telek smiled mockingly. He rose up and slid off the table.

"I wouldn't not suggest that you worry about it right now," began Erin as he watched Telek go into a separate room to dress himself into his armor again. As he emerged from the room, he gave a bang onto his thorax cage armor.

"Captain 'Herosee," began Tom's voice over the PA system. "Please report to the bridge."

"Well, back to work," Telek began as he walked out of the infirmary.

Erin groaned and sank back against the wall as he stared almost hopelessly at the now empty table.

"Crazy-assed bastard…" he sighed. "That's what I have to deal with every single day."

0

Telek walked up onto the control platform where Tekn and Tom were standing. Tekn turned around and clicked his heals as Telek gave a nod to dismiss him.

"I will be in my quarters if you need me, Excellency," said Tekn.

"Go and rest, Tekn," said Telek. "You need it."

The assistant-Ship Master nodded and walked out the door. Telek glanced down at Tom who craned his head to look back up at him.

"So, Erin checked you out, Skipper?" he asked.

"Yup," Telek said. "I'm not gonna turn into one of those disgusting creatures. How's our Green Wonder doing?"

"He's heading over to where we got that transponder signal," said Tom. "It's Captain Keyes' alright."

"I just hope he can get it in time to blow up the _Autumn _before the Flood repair her," said Telek. He pressed a glowing spot on the holo-panel and began to speak. "Cujo?"

"Here, Telek," said the voice of Cujo. His image faded into the main view screen.

"When the Chief is off the _Truth and Reconciliation, _you and are gonna blow that battle cruiser to dust," Telek growled deeply.

"I'll have my beam cannons and torpedoes ready," Cujo said. "The Covenant armada is scattering."

"Where's the _Seeker of Truth_?" Telek asked, cracking his knuckles.

"You plan to pick a fight with Otto 'Gamamee while his forces are in such chaos?" Cujo asked. "Even with that small advantage, he still over powers your ship."

"The Chief needs time bought," said Telek. "I'm not intending to destroy the _Seeker of Truth _but to distract Otto long enough for the Chief to destroy Keyes' ship and along with it the rest of Otto's fleet. Maybe--it'll even knock out Otto too."

"Telek, he was our friend," Cujo began, his voice growing heavy with sorrow. "He was a colleague, a fellow warrior. He was your teacher. You sound like you'd almost be happier slicing his head off yourself."

"Otto knew the truth," Telek said. "He just chose not to believe it. That makes him our enemy. We kill our enemies, remember? That's what we Sangheili live for as warriors--to kill our enemies. Otto would do the same to any of us, especially me. He had his chance to join us, to live in freedom away from the persecution of the Prophets and their lies. He chose his path. Now, he must pay the consequences."

"The truth being what Halo does, right, Captain?" Tom asked.

"Yes, that truth," grunted Telek. "I told Otto the truth before I came here. But he was too blinded by the San 'Shyumm and their lies to even care. He wants his Great Journey, we'll give it to him!"

"You sure you want to do this?" Cujo asked.

"Yes," said Telek. "I do. We'll use our advantage of cloaking. Once we destroy the _Truth and Reconciliation _that'll be it. We'll head for Otto's ship."

"Aye, sir," Cujo nodded. "What of the others?"

"Tell them to get going," said Telek. "Have them stay out of the range of the blast while we handle Otto. As soon as the Chief sets the destruct sequence, we'll leave too."

"Okay," said Cujo. "You're the boss, boss."

"I want to wait though until we have destroyed the _Truth and Reconciliation _before we go pick a fight with Otto," Telek continued.

"Aye, sir," Cujo nodded.

Tom's eyes scanned over the lavender controls of the holographic screen and saw a flashing alien symbol in the corner.

"Telek," he began. "Someone's trying to hail us through the channel."

"Who?" Telek asked.

"It's coming from the _Truth and Reconciliation, _but it's UNSC," he said.

"Is it the Chief?" Telek asked.

"No," said Tom. "It's Captain Keyes."

"Jacob…" Telek breathed. "Bring it on speaker."

"Aye, sir," Tom nodded as he touched the glowing character on the panel.

"T--Telek…" began a raspy, sickened voice over the static of the radio. "Don't--don't send--the Chief after--me…"

"Jacob!" Telek cried. "If you're some how still alive, we can save you!"

"Blow--blow the ship up…" Jacob continued. "Blow--both--of…them…up…"

"Jacob…"

"Tell--tell…Miranda…I love her…" Jacob continued. "I'm--sorry for--not listening…to you."

"Jacob, just hold on," said Telek. "The Chief will be there…."

"It's--too--late for…me," Jacob continued, then the static grew louder until the feed itself was cut.

"Signal's gone," said Tom. "Skipper?"

"Jacob…" breathed Telek. "Damn it! Boost the signal…"

"There isn't any," said Tom. "That's it. He's gone."

Telek's fists clinched up tightly and his lips pulled back across his sharp teeth. His lower mandibles parted slightly as he let loose a deep almost animalistic growl. Telek felt his face flush as his skin tone grew a shade darker. It was the Sangheili equivalent of becoming 'red-faced' with anger, though because of his violet blood, his face would only flush a darker color than turn red. Still, Tom could register his emotions. The Ship Master of the _Shade of Darkness _was furious.

"Damn the Flood…" he growled. "Damn them. I will purge this galaxy of their foul presence by blowing up every Halo infested with them! I swear it! Then--no one will fall to them--no one will have to suffer that horrible fate. For Jacob…"

"Skipper, I'm with you," said Tom. Telek's head jerked up at the sound of the Commander's voice.

"Ditto!" Cujo called.

"Cujo…" Telek said. "You heard the message…"

"Yes," said Cujo. "I did. I also tracked where the message came from. It came from the bridge of the cruiser itself. Apparently, there's one human and three Sangheili forms on the bridge. They look to be stuck together to form some sort of structure attached to the mainframe of the ship itself."

"What?" Telek asked.

"I think the Flood captured Keyes and combined him with the three Sangheili bodies to help control the ship when they make ready to take off. They needed minds that knew about ship operation and navigation."

"And Jacob knows where Earth is," said Telek. "Three Sangheili warriors to teach the Flood how to command the ship and one human to help the Flood navigate the ship to nearby potential planets for them to feed on. Not on my watch. Tom, get me the Chief."

"Yes, sir," Tom nodded.

"Chief?" Telek began. "Chief, can you read me?"

"I'm here, Captain," began the voice of the Master Chief through the static airwaves.

"We're both here," said Cortana. "And we just gotten a message from Captain Keyes."

"You're not the only one," said Telek. "So did I. Apparently, the Flood have already assimilated him and are using him to extract coordinates of UNSC controlled planets."

"That's not good," Cortana began. "The Chief and I are nearing the Control Room. The Flood are everywhere and the Covenant are doing all they can against them. Though, strangely, it seems only Jackals and Grunts are left behind. The Elites have been taken by the Flood."

"Sangheili prove to be more suitable combat forms for the parasite than the Unggoy and Kig-Yar," said Telek. "They probably don't like methane either."

"We're inside," said Cortana. "No human life-signs detected. The Captain! He's one of _them. _We can't let the Flood get off this ring! You know what he'd expect... What he'd want us to do."

"Cortana?" Telek asked.

"He is one of them…" she breathed.

"Get the codes, Chief," Telek sighed. "And--anything of his possessions you can take with you. I need something to bring home to Miranda."

"Yes, sir," the Chief gave a vocal node through the comlink. Telek heard the sound of something made of flesh and bone cracking open and he suspected that the Chief had jammed his fist into Jacob's skull. Then, he heard the Chief pull his hand out. "I have the neural implant. Wait…there's the Captain's pipe."

"Is that all you can find?" Telek asked.

"Some cloth of his uniform as well," the Chief replied.

"Take them with you," said Telek. "Now, get the hell off that cruiser! We're about to destroy it."

"Aye, sir," the Chief said.

"Cortana, Chief, get to the _Pillar of Autumn,_" said Telek. "We'll take over from here."

"Right, Captain," said Cortana. "There's a Banshee in the shuttle bay, we'll take it to the ship."

"Good luck, you'll need it," said Telek as he switched over to Cujo. "Let me know when you've made it safely away. Alright, Cujo, let's blow the _Truth and Reconciliation _into the abyss once the Chief is out."

0

The Chief glanced back into the rear view display of his stolen Banshee at the Covenant cruiser _Truth and Reconciliation._ Then, he saw another cruiser de-cloaking from behind followed by a massive assault carrier. It was the two pirate, ex-Covenant ships _Righteous Fury _and the _Shade of Darkness. _

"Faster, Chief!" called Cortana. "Don't pay attention to those ships."

He had to agree with her on that, though it was hard not to look back because he saw the bottom of both ships open up. He had never seen the methods of how Covenant ships used their most powerful weapons, though he knew from the reports these weapons were used in the glassing of planets. The assault carrier opened up its belly to reveal its gravity lift, though this time the lift did not look like it was going to activate. Instead, an icy-blue colored glow began to build up around the hexagonal-shaped opening where the gravity lift was. Sparks of electricity fluctuated up around the edges of the opening and the Chief swore he could taste lead inside his mouth. The same blue glow also appeared from under the super cruiser. Then, a flash of light blinded the Chief's vision and a sonic boom sounded. He felt a tidal wave of energy and force pushing his Banshee, sending it spiraling out of control.

"Chief!" Cortana called. "Take us higher, now!"

"I'm trying…" John grunted as he gripped the controls. Everything shook around him as if it was about to fall apart right there in midair. He could hear a warning beacon sound. Another blast was heard and the Chief dove his Banshee down low into the trees. He saw behind him smoke and debris flying up into the air and he heard the massive sound of the belly of the _Truth and Reconciliation _collide with the ground below. Blue fire rose up from inside the smoke. The Chief could barely make out the shape of the ship, but he clearly saw the two other ships above continuing to rain down plasma upon it. The Chief took his Banshee higher and noticed that the forest below had now ignited from the plasma fire from the two ex-Covenant ships. He could only suspect that the ground around where the destroyed vessel of the cruiser had now turned to glass.

"Come on, Chief," said Cortana. "We need to push this Banshee to the _Autumn._"

The Chief agreed mentally with her but a sharp pain of distraught hit him. His Banshee was damaged and he could hear its engines begin to give out. He was not sure exactly how far the alien craft was going to carry him, but he hoped it would take him all the way.


	7. Into the Maw

**Into the Maw**

Telek pressed a few buttons and pulled up a star map that showed the location of every Covenant ship that was still in the area. Cracking his knuckles, he commanded his cloaked ship to head for the cruiser known as the _Seeker of Truth._ He gave his fingers a wiggle and then glanced back at the image of Cujo.

"We ready for this?" he asked

"Ready," Cujo replied. "I'll fire first."

"Make it sharp and very disabling," Telek rumbled. "I want him limping back to High Charity with his tail between his legs when this is over."

"After we're done with this and the destruction of Halo," Cujo began. "Otto will be lucky to get sentenced to a mining colony. Because allowing the destruction of such a sacred artifact to the Covenant would be detrimental to his career."

"Oh, they'll fire him for this, I know that," Telek nodded. "He will be discharged—very dishonorably. Almost seems like what we're doing pales in comparison to what Truth will do to him after he learns of what happened."

"Letting a heretic escape," Tekn began. "Failing to stop said heretic from helping the humans destroy Halo. Otto will be in for a bad ride."

"So, basically, you guys are saying 'I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now' right?" Tom asked.

Telek chuckled: "Yep."

"Couldn't put it more crystal than that," Cujo chuckled. "Okay, I am going to do a little bit of coding here and see if I can take out the shields."

"Coding?" Tom asked.

"Cujo knows how to hack into the various Covenant ships and disable things," Telek replied. "He's sneaky that way."

"Yup," he said.

As Cujo's fingers flew across the holo-panel he sent out his message through the ethers. On the ship known as the _Seeker of Truth_, Otto glanced at his lavender holo-screens, noticing that they were beginning to flicker. Code raced up and down their length as the projectors began to spark. His golden-flecked brown eyes lit up in shock and system after system of the ship's defenses began to shut down one by one. Then, an image of a human skull with two crossed swords below it on a black field appeared on his screen. The skull was laughing at him.

"Telek!" he cried just as his ship began to shake.

"Sir, our hull has been breached!" cried a voice over the intercom from engineering. "The shields are down."

"Bring up the auxiliary shield then!" cried Otto. "And find where Telek's ship is! I want that accused carrier reduced to scrap!"

"He's—jamming our instruments and he's cloaked," said the engineer. The ship jolted about violently as the outer hull began to take on another beating from the attacking ship behind it. Then Otto felt another jolt that came from the front.

"What was that?"

"We're being attacked from the bow as well as the stern," said the engineer.

"Fire randomly," Otto called. "If we get lucky we might hit something."

"Uh—yeah…" the engineer replied. "Our own ships, Excellency."

Otto glanced up when he saw the image of Telek appear before him on the screen. The Sangheili defector was grinning at him.

"Telek!" Otto cried. "You bastard!"

"Heehee!" Telek laughed. "Feeling a bit shaky tonight, Otto?"

"What in the Prophets' names are you doing?" Otto asked.

"This!" Telek bellowed as he tapped his finger on a button. Otto heard the sound of a crash as sparks began to fly from the ceiling. He fell backwards as the slick floor beneath him began to move under his hooves.

"Telek!" Otto cried again.

"Uh, sir," Otto heard the human standing beside Telek began. "Did we just sideswipe the _Seeker of Truth_?"

"You did _what?!"_ Otto cried. "Are you drunk?"

"I have shields, my old friend," Telek grinned back. "But as I could read on my screen, it seems you don't."

Otto got to his feet and let loose a roar, spreading his mandibles wide. He snapped his head back towards Telek: "I'm going to melt that ship of yours down to slag when I'm done blowing it into space debris!"

Telek let loose a boisterous laugh, taking hold of his sides as he did so: "You couldn't hit the broad side of Threshold with your poor aim, Otto! From 50 paces no less!"

Otto growled, pressing a button on his holo-panel: "All ships, report to my location. We've got a heretic to destroy! Fire at will."

"Uh…that won't work either," Telek giggled. Then Cujo's face appeared on the other side of the semi-circle of screens.

"Yeah, I disconnected your link to the other ships," Cujo laughed. "The only thing you can get on your radio—is PBS. And us."

"Yeah, us," Telek laughed. "And we're much more entertaining than _Tomas the Tank Engine."_

"He's right, Excellency," began one of Otto's helmsman. "All communications have been disabled except for our communication with the _Shade of Darkness _and the _Righteous Fury._"

"I hate you, Telek," Otto growled.

"Aw," Telek gave a pout to his old commander. "And here I would think you'd be proud of me. I learned all of this from you, you know."

"And I never thought you'd be using all that I've taught you against me," Otto grunted, crossing his arms. He heard the sound of something attaching itself to his own ship. "Telek, what are you doing?"

"Having my ship eat yours," Telek chuckled. "Nah, I'm gonna tow it to where I want it to go and then I'm gonna watch to see if you can escape it in time."

"Escape what?" Otto asked.

"Oh, nothing," Telek replied. "But I'll tell you one thing; you'll get a bang out of it."

Just then, communications ceased between the two ships as Telek's ship towed the _Seeker of Truth _to just above the spot where the Chief had entered the _Pillar of Autumn. _Otto felt bile rise up into his throat and he could taste it at the back of his mouth. The two pirate ships were leading him to somewhere and it was not something he was going to enjoy. Then as soon as he felt his ship stop, he heard the clamps break away and once more communications were hailed between the two ships.

"Later," Telek said as his image flashed off and the shimmer of the cloak of his ship rippled like a heat mirage. Otto could not see the glow of the engines but he could sense that the two ships that had held his ship enthralled were now backing away. They set his ship adrift, allowing it to pass over the ring's surface.

"Get communications back on line!" Otto cried. "Telek's done something! Telek's done something horribly bad!"

"Yes, Excellency," said the helmsman.

"What have you done, Telek?" Otto asked as he glanced down at the surface of the ring. He was passing over a desert and the familiar human ship that his fleet had followed all the way from their planetary stronghold. He could see it on his main screen. "What are you planning?"

0

"Activating final countdown timer," began Cortana. "When it reaches zero, the engines will detonate. The explosion will generate a temperature of almost 100,000,000 degrees. We don't want to be here when it blows."

"No problem," the Chief said as he dove the Warthog through the tunnels leading out of the ship. They had already began the countdown to the detonation of the _Pillar of Autumn. _ There were hordes of Flood and Covenant fighting each other as he streamed by them. He managed to bulldoze over several Grunts running for their lives but the Elites flipped and dodged out of the way. For once, the Chief was thankful that the Covenant was focusing their fire more on the attacking Flood forms than his jeep.

"We should radio the Captain and let him know he better come by and pick us up as soon as he can," said the Chief.

"No, his ship will be damaged once the ring blows up," said Cortana. "We better get on a Pelican first. Then, once we're off this ring after it's blown up, Telek can swing by and pick us up."

"I doubt the Captain will be able to, then," the Chief stated flatly. "He will have to deal with the Covenant to get to us."

"You want him to leave us?" Cortana asked.

"He may not have a choice," the Chief said.

"I'll try to find us a ride," Cortana sighed. "Cortana to Echo 419! Request extraction now, on the double!"

"_Affirmative, Cortana," _calledthe voice over the comlink._ "Foe Hammer inbound."_

The Chief sighed as he opened a channel up to the _Shade of Darkness_.

"Chief?" Telek asked. "What's the score?"

"Detonation sequence has been initiated, Captain," said Cortana.

"Good," Telek said. "I've made sure that a special person takes front row on the spectacular fireworks show you're about to display, Chief. Of course, I roughed him up a bit before the viewing. If he survives, what I've done will be nothing compared to what the Prophets would to do to him."

"Sir," began the Chief. "The ship is about to explode. It's best you get as far away as you can from it."

"Chief," began Telek. "I'm not leaving you behind."

"I appreciate that, sir," said John. "But we'll make it out on our own. Get your ship away from here."

"Alright," Telek sighed through the comlink. "Good luck, Chief. I know I've been saying that a lot to you, but I think it's working."

"Yes, sir," the Chief said. "Thank you, sir."

"Just make it back in one piece or I'm gonna keelhaul yah," Telek growled in mock amusement.

"Sir!" Chief nodded as the comlink shut off. They finally came to a platform that opened out to the desert beyond.

"Wait, stop!" Cortana called, causing the Chief to slow his jeep down. "This is where Foe Hammer is coming to pick us up. Hold position here."

As the Warthog pulled up to the edge of the ledge. Just as he pulled up a Pelican descended down from the air. Wind whipped up about the jeep, causing it to shake slightly. The Chief saw two pairs of Banshees flying about the Pelican, firing at it.

"Cortana to Echo 419!" called Cortana. "Two Covenant Banshees are approaching on your six! Evade, I say again, evade!"

Just then, the green blast of a fuel rod cannon from one of the Banshees clipped a wing of the Pelican and Foe Hammer plummeted from the air itself.

"_I'm hit!" _called Foe Hammer._ "Mayday! Mayday! Airfoil structures have been shot to hell! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!"_

As soon as the Pelican disappeared below, the Chief could hear the sound of the aircraft explode on the sand.

"Echo 419!" Cortana called. "She's gone. Calculating alternate escape route. The ship's inventory shows one Longsword fighter still docked in Launch Bay 7. If we move NOW, we can make it!"

The Chief nodded and backed the Warthog up, revving up the engines and sped down towards where the nav point had been laid out before him.

"I'm afraid Telek's ship has now gone out of range of our comlink," said Cortana. "I can't hail him to tell him that we're taking an alternate route."

"We'll make it," said the Chief. "Without his help."

They pulled out onto a wide spans over a large trench.

"Chief, up ahead there's a gap in the trench!" she began. "At top speed, we should be able to clear it!"

The Chief floored the accelerator as far as he could go, diving down the ramp. The Warthog jumped over the large trench over the many sprays of plasma fire from the battle going on below. Both Covenant and Flood continued to battle each other over the control of the ship. The jeep landed and spun for a few yards as the Chief grappled the wheel. Righting himself, he spun the wheels and raced towards the final stretch and the docking bay where the Longsword rested. It was a magnificent aircraft, sleek, black, shaped similar to the old B-2 stealth bombers of Earth's past. Light glinted off of its polish hull. This aircraft, though shape like a bomber, could do something the ancient bombers of Earth could not—it could travel through space. This sleek bird was the Chief and Cortana's ticket off of Halo. The Chief glanced over as he saw several combat Flood forms race towards him. They too wanted the Longsword.

"That's the ship!" Cortana called. "Move, we need to get aboard NOW!"

The Chief jumped out of the Warthog and dashed towards the opening at the back end of the ship. Before the Flood forms could make it, the Spartan slammed his fist on a red button and the hatch closed behind him.

"We're cutting it a bit close, Chief," Cortana warned as the Chief made it to the cockpit. Tapping his fingers on the board, he activated the ship and heard the engines rev up.

"Here we go," he said as the Longsword took off, streaking its way out of the Halcyon-class cruiser and up into the atmosphere of Halo. Behind him a light began to appear around the hull of the ship as the engines ignited. The light intensified and spread outward over the sand in a bright and blue white, blinding blast. The blast carried on, rippling through the surface of the ring itself and the structure began to rip apart at the seams. A chunk of Halo flew off and collided with another part of the ring, breaking it away. From space, Telek watched the destruction and he could not help but to smile softly.

"It's done," he sighed. "Halo—it's done."

"The Chief…" began Tom. "We should go after him once the destruction has calmed."

Telek was about to say something when his ship's sensors detected a massive slip space rupture appearing on the far side of the planet. He knew what it was.

"No," he said. "I trust the Chief. He'll make it home."

"High Charity," said Tekn. "Excellency."

"Yeah," Telek agreed. "Yeah, I think we've worn out our welcome. We don't need to be here any longer. All ships, let's pick a random coordinate, check for any hitchhikers and then break for Earth."

"Aye, Skipper," said Tom.

"You better come home, Chief," Telek rumbled deeply. "I mean it."

_**1130 Hours, September 25, 2552 (Military Calendar) Earth\Orbital Defense Grid Station **_**Cairo**

No holograms, no meeting under some sort of view screen, this was for real. Telek crossed his arms, staring aimlessly at the gray carpeting on the floor below him. He did not know what to think now that he was meeting once more with the UNSC President. Right beside him was Fleet Admiral Terence Hood, nicknamed Lord Hood by many UNSC personnel. Telek did not wear his armor this time, only the slate gray uniform he was issued when he joined the service of the United Nation's Space Command. On his head was his gold helmet. Telek even wore boots that looked similar to something UNSC personnel would wear; only they were split at the toes to allow him more comfort for his cloven hooves. His leg was crossed over the other and he slightly let his foot sway. Lord Hood sat at the other end of the table and they waited for the President to enter the room. Telek did not see what this was about nor did he understand why the President had to be here for what he suspected would be his court marshal hearing. He knew why he would be punished, he lied about Halo, and he did not even give that information when it was asked of him. Telek had good intentions, but the outcome was bad on his behalf. Still, the result worked out, Halo was destroyed—well, at least one of them anyway. Now all he needed to do was destroy the other six and he would be happy.

President Kiryuu Knight came in, dressed in more traditional clothing, suit and tie ensemble. As Lord Hood had informed, the President was there. There was no hologram this time. Kiryuu would have the joy of shaking Telek's hand or hitting Telek over the head for not giving him information he needed.

"Mr. President," began Lord Hood as he stood up from his chair. Telek followed and waited until the cybernetic, mutated dinosaur sat down.

"Captain 'Herosee," began Kiryuu. "I see your trip home was smooth."

"It was," said Telek. "We did not find any bugs on my ship that would lead the Covenant here."

"Well, that's good," Kiryuu said. "Only—that doesn't matter now."

"I beg your pardon?" Telek asked.

"Intel has informed me that—the Covenant are heading here," Kiryuu began. "We're getting this from our informants on board a hijacked Covenant ship called the _Ascendant Justice_. Have you heard of this ship?"

"I have," Telek replied. "It was a part of the fleet Particular Justice. Who was the informant?"

"A particular Spartan you might know of," said Kiryuu with a grin on his face. Telek's expression soften and his eyes brightened. Kiryuu chuckled. "I knew that would mean something to you, Captain."

"Master Chief…" Telek began. "He—made it."

"He and a few others," said Kiryuu. "They've been skipping about the galaxy. They managed to get on board a Covenant station not too long ago and that's where they got their information. It seems the Covenant knew all along where Earth was."

"Sir, I assure you, it wasn't from me," Telek said in defense.

"I'm not blaming you," said Kiryuu. "No matter, we have our own defenses just in case something like this was to occur. We have the Orbital Defense Grid lead by our esteemed Admiral Hood."

"We'll stop the Covenant bastards before they even set one hoof on our planet," said Lord Hood.

"Telek," began Kiryuu. "I knew we couldn't keep the secret of Earth from the Covenant forever, which is why we built the Grid. Sooner or later, they would be coming to knock on our door. The Cole Protocol was only to buy time to figure our options. And it took us 30 years to do so. In that same time—we built this station and others like it."

Telek glanced about the enormous glass windows around him that looked out over the planet of Earth. He could see other stations similar to the _Cairo_ orbiting the planet. There was the _Athens _and the _Malta_ and several others along the chain that protected all latitudes and longitudes.

"It took some convincing from the industrial companies like Saeder-Krupp to build the Grid," said Kiryuu. "But even the likes of Lofwyr want to keep his hide safe from Covenant invasion. The Great Western Dragon doesn't see any profit in being glassed to ashes."

"How generous of him to help fund such a large project," Telek scoffed slightly.

"You doubt the Grid's defenses, Captain?" Hood asked.

"I know the Covenant," said Telek. "That's all I'm saying."

"We're calling in all ships to come here and defend Earth," said Kiryuu. "And we're not going to give up—no matter just how little you think our efforts are."

"I'm not belittling your efforts, Mr. President," the Sangheili began. "I'm just saying I know the Covenant."

"You knew other things too, Telek," said Hood. "Like this structure called Halo. Why didn't you inform us about it?"

"Because I feared you would use it in a manner that would doom us all," said Telek. "The same way the Covenant wishes to use it for. Halo is a weapon and a containment installation. The Forerunners died trying to keep that virus at bay, but Jacob Keyes unleashed it. To keep the virus from spreading, Halo kills off its food source—as in all of us biological life forms that could sustain it."

"So—it is a weapon that can't be used," said Kiryuu.

"By not telling you, I thought I was trying to protect you from making a mistake the Covenant was trying to do," continued Telek. "By activating it and killing us all."

"I see," Kiryuu began. "Admiral, would you mind leaving us for a moment?"

"Sir?" Hood asked.

"Please," Kiryuu said. Lord Hood sighed as he rose up from his seat and walked out. Kiryuu turned to the large alien, his tail patting the floor. Then, he walked around Telek with his hands behind his back.

"Telek," he began. "I am going to tell you that what you've done I have done many times over. I've kept secrets from humans in order to protect them. I feel that need, you know—to protect the humans. Though I've only been in office a few years, it seems I've been protecting them for much longer than that."

"500 years," said Telek.

"Yes," Kiryuu nodded, his green dreads brushing across his shoulders. "About that long. As you have kept Halo from the humans, I have kept another weapon from them as well. It is a weapon that even today they still cannot create. It was created by a man named Dr. Serezawa. This weapon was used on me in 1954—it killed me. Then 50 years later, I was made into this machine."

"I've—read the papers," said Telek.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Kiryuu began. "But you see, the information was hidden by the Japanese government, who I crippled in the wee beginnings of the 21st Century. I crippled them to get the information on the weapon in order to use it on King Ghidorah—a monster as you know I knew I did not have the power to destroy. This weapon is called the Oxygen Destroyer. I have inside my databanks the formula to create another one. And only I have this information. The humans know that a special weapon was used against me and against King Ghidorah—however, they don't know what the nature of that weapon is—even now they still don't know."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"To tell you that you weren't in the wrong," said Kiryuu. "But it seems that telling the Chief proved beneficial in the long run. Halo is destroyed."

"Only one of them," he rumbled.

"One?"

"There were 7 rings, now there are 6," said Telek. "Odd rings don't have the virus, even do."

"Why such a distinction?" Kiryuu asked.

"I don't know," Telek said. "I haven't translated the text fully to understand it."

"Text?"

"Forerunner text that told me about what the rings really do and what they contain," said Telek. "You asked me that day why I defected, Mr. Knight. Now you know. The religion I believed in, I found out was false and I tried to warn everyone. But they shunned me and labeled me a heretic. All because I knew the truth about the Halos."

"I see," Kiryuu began.

"Am I to be court marshaled?"

"No," Kiryuu replied. "Lord Hood did insist upon it, but giving light to the information, I did not want it to happen. The reason why I'm here is because you're here, Telek. I asked you to come in, so you are my responsibility. I handle all of your promotions. Normally I would not, but you are a special case. There was a promotion that was to be awarded to Captain Keyes. It is unfortunate that he would not be receiving it now."

"Yes, sir," Telek nodded.

"So, I have no choice but to give it to you," Kiryuu turned to Telek with a smile on his face. He opened a box containing four silver stars, two for each shoulder. "Congratulations, Rear Admiral Telek 'Herosee. Or as they say in Hebrew, _mazel tov."_

"You're promoting me to Rear Admiral?" Telek asked.

"I believe your previous Covenant rank was equivalent of that," said Kiryuu. "And I did promise to give it to you someday."

Telek took off the two silver birds from his shoulders and then penned the stars in place of them.

"Now all we need to do is get the bars on your sleeves to match the rest and you'll be set," said Kiryuu. "You've earned it, Telek. Wear them in good health. We need a leader of your caliber for the fight that will come."

"Yes, sir," Telek nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"And about the Oxygen Destroyer," Kiryuu continued. "That is classified information. Not even ONI knows about. Don't go uttering about it to anyone."

"Understood," Telek dipped his head.

"Well, Rear Admiral," Kiryuu continued. "Return to your ship."

0

Though Telek was promoted on Earth, back on High Charity, it was a different story for his former commander Otto 'Gamamee. Otto sat in a waiting room, waiting to speak to the Prophet Hierarchs about loosing the _Ascendant Justice _and loosing Halo. He knew that the outcome was not going to be to his favor. He sighed as he stared down at the floor. He could feel his hearts quivering. He knew he had to go meet with the Prophets with dignity and honor, but he could not see any dignity in loosing so horrendously. He had failed in his mission in keeping Halo safe. Still, he could not help but to wonder about his former subordinate and friend. Telek, during their final meetings, seemed almost foolish, like a madman or a lunatic. The way he was bashing his ship against Otto's, how he was laughing, the stunts that he pulled—they did not make any sense.

"Telek, my old friend," Otto 'Gamamee began. "Whatever you found—the truth or a lie—it has driven you to madness. You were an honorable warrior once—now you're barely even a Sangheili anymore. You're maddened degenerate, a rapscallion. Why, why have you let this madness get to you? It's like a disease. I swear, if I make it through this, I will end your suffering once and for all…"


End file.
